Public sector lender State Bank of India on Tuesday said the executive committee of the central board has approved a long-term fundraising of up to $2 billion.
In a stock exchange filing, the State Bank of India said the fund-raising would be done in single or multiple tranches through a public offer or private placement of senior unsecured notes in dollars or any other convertible currency during the financial year 2023-24.
The board of Bank of India (BoI) on Tuesday also approved plans to raise Rs 6,500 crore from various means, including share sale, to fund business growth in 2023-24.
“The executive committee of the central board in its meeting on April 18, 2023, has approved inter alia, the following: to examine the status and decide on long-term fund raising in single/multiple tranches up to $2 billion under Reg-S/144A, through a public offer and/or private placement of senior unsecured notes in US Dollar on any other convertible currency during FY2023-24,” SBI said in the exchange filing.
In March, SBI raised Rs 3,717 crore through Additional Tier 1 bonds at a coupon rate of 8.25 per cent in a bid to shore up its capital adequacy in line with RBI guidelines. The bank also raised Rs 4,544 crore in February.
The public sector lender’s capital adequacy had seen a marginal dip from 13.51 per cent in September 2022 to 13.27 per cent in December, while risk-weighted assets to total assets increased from 50.25 per cent to 50.60 per cent.
The capital adequacy in December was slightly better than in December 2021, which was 13.23 per cent.
SBI joins the likes of HDFC Bank which in February had informed stock exchanges it has completed the issue of $750 million senior unsecured bonds acting through GIFT City IFSC banking unit. The board of the bank on Saturday approved a proposal to raise Rs 50,000 crore in bonds in this fiscal.
The plan to raise capital comes at a time credit offtake rose 15 per cent year on year or Rs 17.8 trillion to Rs 136.8 trillion. The growth has been driven by personal loans housing loans, auto loans as well as higher working capital requirements.
With credit growth expected to persist, banks would need to raise capital to maintain their business growth momentum while simultaneously complying with Basel guidelines.
