IndusInd Bank Ltd, the bank backed by the billionaire Hinduja brothers, might raise as much as $350 million in a share sale to institutions, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
The so-called qualified institutional placement may begin as soon as on Monday, said the people, who asked not to be named as the process was private. JM Financial Services Pvt Ltd, HSBC Holdings Plc, Morgan Stanley and CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets are managing the sale, the people said.
The fundraising by Mumbai-based IndusInd, whose shares have risen 70 per cent this year, was approved at the company’s annual meeting in July. The company is considering raising funds to bolster its capital base, Chief Executive Officer Romesh Sobti said on a conference call on October 10.
Sobti didn’t reply to an email and phone call to his office seeking comment on the size and timing of the sale. Officials at JM Financial, HSBC Holdings and Morgan Stanley declined to comment on the sale.
A Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for CLSA couldn’t be reached outside of normal business hours.
The lender’s so-called Tier-I capital ratio, a measure of a bank’s financial strength, fell to 11.4 per cent by March 2012, from 12.3 per cent a year before, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The lender had a Tier-I ratio of about 11 per cent at the end of September, Sobti said on the call.
