SBI $4.1 billion rights issue covered: Sources

• IBTimes RSS
• Print
• E-Mail
• digg
• Del.icio.us

"The offer has been subscribed," said one banker involved in the deal. Another banker said it was "more or less" covered with the final tallying still going on.

Both the bankers declined to be named and said SBI was unlikely to make an announcement on Tuesday.

SBI has 10,000 branches across the country that collected applications from retail investors and data is still being collated, they said.

The state-run bank offered investors one share at 1,590 rupees for every five held, looking to raise 167.36 billion rupees ($4.1 billion) to meet demand for loans in a growing economy.

It was the bank's first share sale in more than a decade.

Shares in SBI closed down 2.5 percent at 1,592.20 rupees, down 31 percent since the issue opened on Feb. 18, having fallen to a five-month low of 1,582.25 rupees in the afternoon.

The sharp fall had hit sentiment and one banker said the retail portion was not fully subscribed and this was bought by large institutional shareholders. Retail investors own a little more than 5 percent of the bank.

The Bank of New York with a 7.42 percent stake through SBI's Global Depositary Receipts and state-run Life Insurance Corp of India with a 3.6 percent stake are the largest shareholders after the government.

The Indian government said last month it would invest 99.96 billion rupees to maintain its 59.73 percent stake in the bank.

• 1
• 2