Catholic Syrian Bank gears up for listing, hires Axis Capital as adviser

The purpose of IPO is to have a diversified shareholding

Fairfax-backed Catholic Syrian Bank (CSB) is gearing up for a listing in order to meet RBI requirements. The bank, which has enough capital for the next three years, says it is looking at two routes - direct listing, or through an IPO. The latter may involve the sale of both new and existing shares.

Last year, Fairfax got all the approvals to acquire a 51 per cent stake in CSB for around Rs 1200 crore. This is the first stake sale of an Indian bank to a foreign non-banking entity since the RBI tweaked ownership norms in May 2017. One