The Rs 9,000-crore initial public offering (IPO) of SBI Cards and Payment Services, the credit card unit of State Bank of India, will open for subscription on March 2.

The company, which had filed the draft IPO papers in November last year, obtained “observations” from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on February 11.

Sebi’s observations are necessary for any company to launch public issues, including initial public offers, follow-on public offer and rights issues.

The IPO will open for subscription on March 2 and close on March 5, the SBI said in a regulatory filing.

“Further, the SBI has been informed by SBI Cards that, in compliance with the applicable law, including the Sebi (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2018, anchor investors shall bid one working day prior to the bid/offer opening date, being February 28, 2020,” it said.

Further, the subscription period for qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) will close one working day prior to the closing date on March 4, it said.

According to the draft papers, SBI Cards will offer up to 130,526,798 equity shares through an offer-for-sale route. This will include up to 37,293,371 share sale by SBI and up to 93,233,427 shares on offer by Carlyle Group. In addition, the company will issue fresh equity shares of Rs 500 crore.

The SBI holds 76 per cent in SBI Cards and the rest is held by Carlyle Group. SBI Cards is the second-largest credit card issuer in India with an 18 per cent market share.

Kotak Mahindra Capital, Axis Capital, DSP Merryl Lynch, Nomura Financial Advisory, HSBC Securities and SBI Capital Markets are the book-running lead managers of the issue.