Punjab & Sind Bank to raise Rs 2,000 cr via QIP this quarter: MD & CEO Swarup Kumar Saha

State-owned Punjab and Sind Bank plans to raise Rs 2,000 crore through Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) during the ongoing quarter, a top official of the bank said.

The bank has already appointed merchant bankers and legal advisers for the proposed QIP, Punjab & Sind Bank managing director and CEO Swarup Kumar Saha told PTI.

"With the QIP, the government holding in the bank would come down 3-4 per cent and capital adequacy ratio would rise at the end of March 2025," he said.

The government of India holds 98.25 per cent stake in Punjab & Sind Bank at the end of December 2024, he said.

 The government has extended the deadline for meeting minimum public shareholding norms for central public sector enterprises and public sector financial institutions till August 2026.

Out of 12 public sector banks (PSBs), five are yet to comply with minimum public shareholding (MPS) norms and the government's holding is beyond 75 per cent.

As per the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), all listed companies must maintain an MPS of 25 per cent.

The bank's board had already approved a capital mop up of Rs 10,000 crore, including Rs 5,000 crore as infrastructure bonds, Rs 2,000 crore as QIP and the remaining Rs 3,000 crore as Tier-1 or Tier-2 bonds for the current fiscal.

Last month, the bank raised Rs 3,000 crore from maiden infrastructure bonds aimed at expanding infra lending.

During the third quarter ended December, 2024, Punjab & Sind Bank reported a more than two-fold jump in its net profit to Rs 282 crore in the December 2024 quarter as bad loans declined.

The bank had earned a net profit of Rs 114 crore in the same quarter a year ago.

The bank's total income increased to Rs 3,269 crore during the quarter under review, as against Rs 2,853 crore in the same period last year, Punjab & Sind Bank said in a regulatory filing.

On the asset quality front, gross non-performing assets (NPAs) declined to 3.83 per cent of the gross loans by the end of December 2024, from 5.70 per cent a year ago.

Similarly, net NPAs or bad loans came down to 1.25 per cent from 1.80 per cent at the end of the third quarter of the previous fiscal.