Utkarsh Small Finance Bank has received capital markets regulator Sebi's go ahead to raise Rs 500-crore through an Initial Public Offering (IPO). The Varanasi-headquartered Small Finance Bank's (SFB) IPO is a complete fresh issue of shares and the entire proceeds will go to the lender, according to Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP).

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The lender may consider issue of securities aggregating up to Rs 100 crore in a pre-IPO placement round. If such placement is undertaken, the fresh issue size will be reduced.

The SFB, which filed fresh draft papers with Sebi in August, obtained its observation letter on October 21, an update with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) showed on Tuesday. In Sebi's parlance, obtaining its observation letter implies the markets watchdog's approval to launch the IPO.

Going by the draft papers, proceeds from the fresh issue will be utilised to augment the lender's Tier 1 capital base to meet future capital requirements.

Incorporated in 2016, Utkarsh commenced operations in 2017 and its product suite includes a range of deposit products, including saving accounts, salary accounts, current accounts, recurring and fixed deposits and locker facilities. As on March 2022, its operations are spread across 22 states and Union Territories with 686 banking outlets and 12,617 employees serving 3.14 million customers majorly located in rural and semi urban areas primarily in the states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand.

Its gross loan portfolio grew from Rs 6,660.95 crore as of March 31, 2020 to Rs 10,630.72 crore as of March 31, 2022, while the total deposits almost doubled from Rs 5,235.21 crore to Rs 10,074.18 crore during the same period.

Earlier in March 2021, Utkarsh had filed draft papers with Sebi to raise Rs 1,350 crore through the IPO. It was seeking issuance of fresh shares amounting to Rs 750 crore and an offer for sale of up to Rs 600 crore. The lender had received Sebi's go ahead to float the IPO in June last year but did not launch the initial share-sale.

In August this year, it refiled the draft papers but reduced the IPO size. ICICI Securities and Kotak Mahindra Capital Company are the book running lead managers to the issue.