PNB Housing Finance announces OFS of about 1 bn shares at Rs 1,325 apiece

Public sector Punjab National Bank looks to raise over Rs 1,324.21 crore by diluting 6 per cent holding in subsidiary firm PNB Housing Finance in an offer for sale (OFS) that starts tomorrow.

The floor price of the OFS is Rs 1,325 per share.

"PNB proposes to sell up to 99,94,000 equity shares on November 28 (for non-retail investors only) and on November 29 (for retail investors and non-retail investors who choose to carry forward their bids)...representing six per cent of the total paid up equity share capital of the company (PNB Housing Finance)," the bank said in a regulatory filing.

Earlier this month, PNB Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Sunil Mehta said the bank has a headroom to sell up to 9 per cent stake in the subsidiary.

"PNB has 39 per cent stake in PNB Housing Finance and the promoter stake holding will not go down below 30 per cent, leaving the bank a headroom to sell stake up to 9 per cent," Mehta had said while announcing the second quarter earnings.

The OFS is part of bank's strategy to sell non-core assets.

"We have a large number of non-core assets and we have approval in place to sell a partial stake in some of these non core assets, may be without diluting our promoters stake into them. One of them is PNB Housing Finance," Mehta had said on November 3.

PNB stock closed flat at Rs 185.90 on BSE today and PNB Housing Finance was up 0.72 per cent at Rs 1,385 a share.