Friday, July 13, 2007

UTI set to open its $1 bn-plus issue

UTI Bank will hit the market next week with a $1 billion-plus equity issue. The bank will raise the money from a mix of preferential issue to promoters and fresh issues to qualified institutional buyers and GDR investors.

The bank’s capital raising plans were approved by the board, which met here on Thursday to consider the results for the first quarter and also decide on the equity expansion. Buoyed by a 70.7% growth in non-interest income, the bank announced a 45.2% rise in net profit to Rs 175 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2007.

The bank also decided to have a uniform price for all issues. Sources said the issue is likely to be priced at around Rs 650 per share. The bank will issue 3.19 crore shares to promoters. At Rs 650, UTI Bank will raise around Rs 2,075 crore from the preferential issue. The Special Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India (SUUTI) and Life Insurance Corporation of India have agreed to subscribe to the issue. However, some smaller subsidiaries of the General Insurance Corporation (GIC) may not subscribe to the preferential issue. The bank’s scrip closed at Rs 641.1 on the BSE on Thursday.

Read more in The Economic Times article.

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