Equitas Small Finance Bank Gets SEBI Approval For IPO

Chennai-based Equitas Small Finance Bank has received permission for the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for its initial public offering (IPO). The offer will include fresh equity sale worth Rs 550 crore and an offer-for-sale of 8 crore shares, according to the draft red herring prospectus.

According to the market regulator's website, the observation letter (indicating a go-ahead to the IPO) was issued on 28 February 2020. SEBI's observations are necessary for any company to launch public issues such as IPO, follow-on public offer and rights issue.

The bank proposes to utilise the net proceeds from the offer towards augmenting its Tier I capital base to meet future capital requirements, as per the prospectus.

JM Financial, Edelweiss Financial Services and IIFL Securities will be lead managers to the offer.

Shares of the small finance bank are proposed to be listed on BSE and NSE.

Equitas Small Finance Bank had become a scheduled bank in February 2017. The IPO nod is crucial for the bank as it missed RBI's licensing mandate of listing within 3 years of commencement of operations. The central bank had barred it from opening new branches on missing listing deadline and also frozen salary of the managing director and CEO.