Bank of Baroda plans to divest up to 49% in credit card arm

State-owned Bank of Baroda (BoB) plans to sell up to 49 per cent stake in credit card business arm BOB Financial Solutions Ltd. Currently, it is 100 per cent owned by BoB.

The bank has floated a Request for Proposal for roping in a strategic investor, and the process is expected to complete in one year, a senior bank official said.

BOB intends to offload up to 49 per cent in a combination of primary and secondary capital from one or multiple investors to create more value in BOB Financial Solutions and take it to the next level of growth, the official said.

BOB Financial doubled the acquisition of new credit cards in FY23 by issuing close to 1.2 million credit cards compared to 0.5 million a year ago.

"Retail spends too more than doubled compared to FY 2022, clocking approximately Rs 17,300 crore (compared to Rs 7,000 crore in FY 2022)," BoB said in its annual report.

At the same time, the net profit of the NBFC also more than doubled to Rs 24.62 crore against Rs 10.07 crore in the year-ago period.

BOB Financial Solutions Ltd, formerly known as BOB Cards Ltd, was established in 1994 as a non-banking financial company, a wholly-owned arm of BoB.

Its primary business is issuance of credit cards, with its key differentiator being simple, easy-to-understand products that are fairly priced, efficiently serviced, and can easily be availed through a digital-all application process.

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