Indian lender HDFC Bank has launched a share offer in the US as well as in India to raise up to INR100bn ($1.6bn) in a bid to meet international banking rules.
The bank, which is said to have filed with the US regulator to sell 22 million American Depositary Shares, is also planning to sell shares to Indian investors to raise up to INR20bn ($324m), Reuters reported.
Last week, HDFC received approval from the Indian government to raise up to $1.6bn by selling shares. However, the government gave approval on condition that its overseas ownership should not be more than 74%.
According to the news agency, in order to meet the Basel III global banking industry rules, Indian banks will be required to have over $100bn of new capital by March 2019.
The bank lacks immediate capital requirement, but the new funds raised by selling shares, is expected to help support its growth.
The bank’s total income for the quarter ended 30 September 2014 stood at INR138.94bn ($2.2bn) as against INR119.37bn ($1.9bn) for the previous quarter.
Net revenues were at INR75.58bn ($1.2bn), representing an increase of 19.6% for the quarter ended 30 September 2014 over INR63.20bn ($1.02bn) for the corresponding quarter of the previous year.
Indian banking and financial services company HDFC Bank had a market cap value of around $26.88bn as on 2 January 2014.
The bank was promoted by the Housing Development Finance Corporation, a premier housing finance company of India.
Image: HDFC bank branch in the Indian city of Hyderabad. Photo: courtesy of Jayanta/Wikipedia