Indian Bank Price Band at Rs 77

Mumbai, Jan 22: The Chennai-headquartered public sector Indian Bank, which is celebrating its 100 years of operations, has decided to tap the capital market with an initial public offer (IPO) of 85,950,000 equity shares of Rs 10 each for cash, at a premium to be decided through 100 per cent book-building process, with a price band fixed between Rs 77 and Rs 91 per share.

Announcing this to newsmen here today, Indian Bank Chairman&Managing Director Dr K C Chakrabarty said the offer constitutes 20 per cent of the post issue fully diluted paid up equity capital of the bank. The issue opens for subscription on February 5, 2007 and closes on February 9, 2007.

Post IPO, the Government of India will hold 80 per cent of the public sector bank's equity share capital, he said.

Dr Chakrabarty said the bank is tapping the market to augment its capital base to meet future capital requirements arising out of implementation of the Basel II standards and also to grow its assets -- in sync with the growth of the Indian economy -- primarily loan and investment portfolio.

''Our mission statement is to be the common man's bank and we seek to provide a range of financial products and services to all our customers under one roof,'' Mr Chakrabarty said adding that the bank maintained its focus on addressing the needs of agricultural customers and offer specialised products and services that cater to the agricultural and rural sectors.

The bank, according to him, offers direct financing to farmers for production and investment, as well as indirect financing for infrastructure development and credit to suppliers of agricultural inputs.

It has network of 1,408 branches spread across 26 states and 3 union territories. The bank has a branch in Singapore and another in Colombo, Sri Lanka. As on September 30, 2006 the bank had over 18.1 million customers.

The Book Running Lead Managers (BRLMs) to the Issue are SBI Capital Markets, Enam Financial Consultants, ICICI Securities and Kotak Mahindra Capital Company.

The Issue will be listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange(NSE).

UNI