SBI group co IPO process begins; to decide soon when to hit the market

India’s largest bank State Bank of India (SBI) holds 74 per cent stake in the SBI Card and the rest is held by Carlyle Group

SBI Card has initiated the process for an initial share sale and the decision on when to come out with the offer will be taken at an appropriate time, a senior company official said on Monday. As per the request for proposal for book running lead managers (BRLMs) floated by the SBI Card, the company intends to tap capital markets via IPO through ‘offer for sale’ by dilution of up to 14 per cent of the issued and paid up capital (up to 13.05 crore) equity shares and primary issuance of up to Rs 1,000 crore.

India’s largest bank State Bank of India (SBI) holds 74 per cent stake in the SBI Card and the rest is held by Carlyle Group. “As we go forward, we will actually take a call (on IPO) and that call is to be taken by the promoters…at some point of time this decision will be taken,” SBI Card Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Hardayal Prasad said.

Currently, the market is volatile and the timing of hitting the market would depend on how it is panning out, he added. The company floated expression of interest for selection of BRLMs, Domestic Legal Council (DLC) and International Legal Council (ILC) for the proposed share offering last month. Talking about the strengthes of the company, Prasad said SBI Card has made massive investment in digitisation and technology.

According to him, the credit business has huge potential to grow in view of very low penetration in the country. He said there were only three credit cards for a population of 100, while it was 165 in Singapore and 250 cards in Hong Kong. So, there is a lot of scope for growth of credit cards in the country, he added.

As per the RBI, SBI Card ranked second with the credit card base and credit card spends capturing 17.6 per cent and 17.1 per cent market share in the respective categories. The company posted year-on-year growth of 32.17 per cent with the credit card base of over 8.27 million as on March 31, 2019 as compared to 6.26 million as on March 31, 2018. It posted an annual credit card spends (excluding cross sell) of Rs 103,170 crore as on March, 2019, up 34.9 per cent over March 2018.