Private sector lender Bandhan Bank share price soared on its market debut on Tuesday and quickly beat the likes of Bank of Baroda and Punjab National Bank to become the eighth most valued bank on Dalal Street. The Kolkata-based bank's stock witnessed a bumper listing on the bourses, beating market capitalisation of all the public sector banks except State Bank of India (SBI). 

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Bandhan Bank, which launched India's biggest ever initial public offering (IPO) by a bank earlier in March, listed at Rs 499 on NSE, a 33 per cent premium against its issue price of Rs 375. On BSE the stock debuted at Rs 485, and settled 27 per cent higher at Rs 477. At this price, Bandhan Bank quoted at a market capitalisation of 56878.9 crore on the BSE, data available with database INSIGHT showed.  

In Wednesday's trade, the stock slipped over 3 per cent to Rs 462.20 on BSE. Sanjiv Bhasin of IIFL, belives Bandhan Bank could be a great two-three year play, but suggested buying the stock at lower levels. 

"A prudent management is working behind Bandhan Bank, for whom philanthropy is at the forefrnot. The CEO of the bank is on the same footsteps as Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh, who revamped the micro-finance industry in a big way. Going ahead, we will have to see how Bandhan Bank will be valued. At the current levels, the stock is expensive, and investor should get into it if the stock is available at lower levels. 

"The stock could perform really well in two-three years given it is expanding fast in unbanked territory," he added

Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, CEO and managing director, Bandhan Bank has significant experience in the finance and microfinance sector. He was born into a family of Bangladeshi refugees. During his association with various NGOs, while working in small villages in Bangladesh, Ghosh acquired first hand experince of the challenges deprived families feel on monetary issues. 

He set up his own firm Bandhan-Konnagar, and registered Bandhan as a non-banking finance company In 2009. Bandhan Bank became the first microfinance institution in 2014 to receive a banking licence in India. 

Bandhan Bank began operations in August 15 and had a total business of Rs 48,225 crore as of 31 December 2017, through a vast network of 887 bank branches and 430 ATMs, together serving over 2.13 million general banking customers. 
      
For the 9MFY18, the bank had robust fundamentals with net interest margin (NIM) at 9.9 per cent, net interest income at Rs 2,169 crore (90 per cent of FY17), net profit at Rs 958 crore (86 per cent) along with high return ratios of 25.6 per cent RoE and 4.1 per cent RoA on an annualised basis.