Yes Bank has drawn up plans for foraying into the private equity segment through a special purpose vehicle, within the next six to eight months.
The bank plans to launch at least two PE funds this fiscal, said Varun Tuli, group president, ICICI Bank.
The funds might not be aimed at a specific segments or sectors, but would be diversified in nature, with an initial corpus of nearly $50-100 million each, Tuli said.
The bank would pick up stake between 10-15 per cent by way of equity participation, he added.
Recently, the bank had set up a separate division for PE and mergers and acquisitions for the business banking division, which caters to the SME and emerging businesses' segments.
For the first quarter of the total fiscal, the total advances of the bank grew by about 45 per cent to Rs 10,052 crore from Rs. 6,917 crore as at June 30, 2007.
Total deposits also grew by 45 to Rs. 12,552 crore from Rs. 8,640 crore as on the same period last year.
Business banking accounted for around 35 per cent of the total business of the bank.
However, the bank might approach a cautious approach in lending this year, given the marginal slowdown of the economy.
"We may not grow as aggressively this year as we did last year. The overall credit growth might be impacted in the six-eight months," Tuli said.
The bank recently raised about $ 85 million, through a combination of subordinated debt ($80 million) and hybrid tier I capital ($5 million) from Rabobank.
Yes Bank has 80 operational branches across 69 locations nationally and recently applied for additional licenses to open 37 new branches.
