Ritik Gupta
IDFC First Bank on Thursday said that its board has approved raising funds of up to ₹3,000 crores via securities.
“The Board at its meeting held today approved raising of funds for an amount aggregating up to ₹ 3,000 crore, in one or more tranches, on such terms and conditions as it may deem fit, by way of issuance of securities, through one or more permissible mode(s), including but not limited to a Private Placement, Qualified Institutions Placement, Follow-on Public Offering or a combination thereof, subject to shareholders’ approval through a Postal Ballot process and regulatory and other approvals, as may be required under applicable law,” the Bank stated in a BSE filing.
It also asserted that its board “noted the significant opportunities for growth of the Bank based on the strong capabilities the Bank has built and the strong outlook for economic recovery in India.”
On February 15, “to participate in strong upcoming growth opportunities that we are seeing”, IDFC First Bank said that its board would meet on February 18, 2021 “to consider and approve the proposal for raising of funds by way of issue of equity shares/ other equity-linked securities”.
The bank raised ₹2,000 crores through an institutional placement in June, joining its larger adversaries in smearing the markets. Lenders have been utilizing the funds to strengthen their inadequate loan buffers during the pandemic and formulate for rapid growth once demand picks up.
On Thursday, the bank’s scrip on BSE closed 3.01% higher at ₹58.10 apiece.
Meanwhile, the bank, which came into existence lately after the merger of IDFC Bank and Capital First, had recently reported a net profit of ₹130 crores for the third quarter ended on December 31, 2020.
During the quarter, total income rose to ₹4,711.72 crores from ₹4,679.14 crores in the same period of the previous fiscal, the bank said in a regulatory filing.
The bank’s asset quality improved as gross non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans reduced to 1.33 percent of the gross advances as of December 31, 2020, as against 2.83 percent by the same period a year ago.
Similarly, the net NPAs improved to 0.33 percent from 1.23 percent in the third quarter of the previous fiscal.
