Ujjivan to bring down foreign holding up to 45 pct post IPO

Ujjivan to bring down foreign holding up to 45 pct post IPO
27/04/2016 14:16

Ujjivan Financial Services Ltd, which is entering the capital markets with around Rs 880 crore IPO on April 28, looks to bring down foreign holding up to 45 per cent, a critical requirement for promoting a small bank, reported PTI. "According to regulatory requirement, the foreign holding in the small bank has to be less than 49 per cent. IPO is the first step towards transformation to a small finance bank. Foreign shareholding has come down to 77 per cent following a pre-IPO placement. The IPO will help reduce further to 44-45 per cent," Ujjivan MD & CEO Samit Ghosh said. Foreign holding in Ujjivan was as high as 90 per cent, which turned into a professionally-run institution over last 10 years. Ujjivan Small Bank, promoted by Ujjivan Financial Services as a wholly-owned holding company, will be launched by January-April 2017, Ujjivans strategy executive Rajat Singh said. "The entire business will be moved to the bank. Some 40 per cent of our existing 470 branches spread across 24 states will be brought under the bank branches in the initial phase," he said. Ujjivan will approach regulators for a reverse merger of the bank and its holding company (Ujjivan Financial Services) later to overcome another hurdle to list the bank in the next three years. "There is no meaning in keeping two entities for one business. We will approach the regulators," Ghosh said.