SBI to sell 50 lakh shares in NSE as part of capital raising exercise

The State Bank of India (SBI) is set to sell 50 lakh shares representing 1.01 per cent stake in the National Stock Exchange (NSE). In a statement on Friday, the bank said that the decision has been taken as part of its capital raising exercise. As of now, the largest public lender has 5.19 per cent stake in the exchange.

"SBI is one of the shareholders of National Stock Exchange of India Ltd and intends to divest up to 1.0101 per cent (50,00,000 equity shares) of its equity shareholding in NSEIL (National Stock Exchange of lndia Ltd) through a competitive bidding process," the lender said in a public notice.

It has said that the bid should be submitted for a minimum lot of 10,00,000 shares in the prescribed format. The last date for submission is January 15, 2020.

This is not the first time when SBI has sold its share in NSE. In 2016, the bank had sold 5 per cent stake in the NSE to Mauritius-based Veracity Investments for Rs 911 crore, valuing the exchange at over Rs 18,200 crore. It was after this deal that SBI's stake in NSE had come down to 5.19 per cent while SBI Capital holds 4.33 per cent stake in the exchange.

Last month, IFCI too had sold its entire 2.44 per cent stake in the NSE for Rs 805.6 crore. Apart from this, the bank is also looking to raise fund from initial public offer of its subsidiaries UTI Mutual Fund and SBI Cards and Payment Services Ltd.

Meanwhile, SBI has also made several changes in its services from January 1 like like OTP-based ATM transactions, upgradation to EMV chip debit card, and reduction in its external benchmark based rate (EBR).