Country’s largest Public Sector lender, the State Bank of India, on Tuesday said that its board has approved raising up to USD 3 billion via debt in the current financial year.
The SBI will raise the funds in one or more tranches through a public offer or a private placement of senior unsecured notes, which will be denominated in US dollars or another major foreign currency, it said.
In a stock exchange filing, SBI said, “the Executive Committee of the Central Board at its meeting held today i.e. 11th June 2024 has approved, inter alia, to examine the status and decide on long term fund raising in single/multiple tranches of up to USD 3 Billion through a public offer and/or private placement of senior unsecured notes in US Dollar or any other major foreign currency during FY2024-25.”
However, the bank has not mentioned what the proceeds will be used for.
It is to be noted that the Indian banks are shoring up their capital base to meet the rising demand for loans.
Back in January, the SBI raised Rs 5,000 crore by selling Basel III-compliant additional tier-I perpetual bonds.
On Tuesday, SBI’s shares were up 0.8 per cent and have gained 30.5 per cent so far this year.
Motilal Oswal on Tuesday maintained its buy rating on SBI with a revised price target of Rs 1,015 per share from Rs 925 earlier. The SBI is also one of the top ideas for the brokerage within the sector.
The brokerage said that SBI stands tall among the best-performing banks globally and that SBI’s current balance sheet size of Rs 62 lakh crore, is more than the combined GDP of nearly 174 countries in the world.
For Q4FY24, SBI’s Gross Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) fell to 2.24 per cent from 2.42 per cent in December, while Net NPA also improved to 0.57 per cent from 0.64 per cent in the previous quarter.
SBI has grown at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate of 34 per cent in the last two years, delivering the best-in-class Return on Equity (RoE) and loan growth among the large banks.