Axis Bank, India's third-largest private-sector lender, has raised Rs 12,500 crore ($1.76 billion) by selling shares to institutional investors including Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte Ltd.
The bank said in a stock-exchange filing that its qualified institutional placement (QIP) issue was oversubscribed and that it sold the shares at Rs 629 apiece.
In July, the bank's board had given approval to raise up to Rs 18,000 crore.
Shares of Axis Bank were trading 1.3% higher on Thursday at Rs 703.70 apiece on the BSE.
The bank said it sold the shares to several large foreign portfolio investors, domestic mutual funds and insurance companies.
It didn’t name the investors. However, a separate stock-exchange filing shows that GIC was among the buyers.
Private equity firm Bain Capital, which had led a $1.8 billion funding round in Axis Bank in 2017, didn’t make any fresh investment. Bain’s stake in Axis Bank fell to 4.63% as on Thursday from 5% at the end of June, the filing shows.
Amitabh Chaudhry, managing director and chief executive officer at Axis Bank, said the reception for the QIP is an endorsement of bank and its strong fundamentals. “We will strive to ensure that we continue our growth journey and keep delivering the best value to our customers, shareholders and investors consistently and on a sustainable basis,” he said.
The fundraising will help Axis Bank enhance its capital adequacy, in accordance with regulatory requirements, for its growth strategy and for general corporate purposes.
The fund infusion comes at a time when Axis Bank is still reeling from its stressed assets portfolio with exposures to some large groups like Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Capital Ltd and Subhash Chandra's Essel Group, which are struggling to repay their debts.
