Axis Bank raises ₹12,500 crore via QIP
MUMBAI: Private sector lender Axis Bank Ltd has raised ₹12,500 crore in India’s second-largest qualified institutional placement (QIP) from large foreign and local investors, said two people aware of the development.
In 2017, government-controlled State Bank of India had raised ₹ 15,000 crore i n t he nation’s largest QIP.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIS) that participated in the share sale include funds managed by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and American investors T Rowe Price and Blackrock, said one of the two people cited above, requesting anonymity as he is not authorized to speak to reporters.
“The book was subscribed almost equally by foreign and domestic investors such as mutual funds. Most of the existing investors took part in the QIP,” he added.
A QIP is a capital-raising tool through which listed companies can sell shares, fully and partly convertible debentures, or any securities other than warrants that are convertible into stocks, to a qualified institutional buyer.
Axis Bank launched the institutional share sale on September 19, setting a floor price of ₹661.50 per share.
According to the second person cited above, the lender has sold shares in the QIP at ₹628-629 per share. He too declined to be identified.
Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) rules allow companies to sell at as much as 5% discount to the QIP floor price. A board committee will meet on September 25 to consider and approve the price of the shares to be issued through the QIP, the lender said in a stock exchange filing.
T Rowe Price declined to comment. Emails sent on Friday to GIC, Blackrock and Axis Bank did not elicit a response.
“The bank intends to use the net proceeds to enhance its capital adequacy, in accordance with regulatory requirements, its growth strategy and for general corporate purposes, in accordance with applicable law,” it said in a regulatory filing on Thursday. In 2017, Axis Bank raised up to ₹11,625.8 crore through a private placement of shares to a clutch of investors led by private equity fund Bain Capital.
The latest fundraise makes Axis Bank the third bank to raise funds through a QIP this year, at a time when markets have largely been volatile due to domestic growth concerns and external factors such as Us-china trade war and crude prices.
In August, troubled private lender Yes Bank Ltd raised ₹1,930 crore through a QIP offering, while in March, Lakshmi Vilas Bank Ltd raised ₹459.5 crore through a sale of shares to institutional investors.