The share sale, if it materialises, will make RBL the 41st publicly traded bank in India. The IPO comes at a time when secondary markets are buoyant and interest in primary markets is starting to pick up.
Vinod Wadhwani, director at Ambit Corporate Finance Pte Ltd, expects a robust investor response to the IPO. “Given that most of the public sector banks are reeling under the huge pressure of non-performing loans, investor interest in public sector banks is limited. There is a dearth of new and quality paper supply in the private sector as well. Private sector banks such as Ratnakar Bank, which has a competitive management team in place, is expected to continue its growth trajectory. Hence, the investor response to the IPO is expected to be robust,” Wadhwani said.
In an interview with Mint in June, Rajeev Ahuja, head of strategy at the bank, had said that no single investor holds more than 5% in RBL. An IPO will hence mean a further reduction in stakes of existing investors. Besides, it will also give liquidity to employees for their stock options and probably attract more large investors who would want to buy into a listed bank.
As on 31 March, the bank had a loan book of Rs.9,835 crore, according to RBL’s website. In fiscal year 2014, it added 51 branches and a similar number will be added in the current fiscal year, Ahuja had said. As on March 2014, RBL had 185 branches and 350 ATMs with more than 500,000 clients.
Overall, the bank is targeting growth of 40-50% in advances and deposits over the next couple of years, Ahuja said. For the year ended March 2014 the bank’s net advances grew 54% while deposits rose 39%.
