SBI board to meet on June 11 to consider raising up to $1.5 billion

State Bank of India (SBI) on Thursday said that its board will meet on June 11 to consider raising funds in single or multiple tranches of up to $1.5 billion. India's biggest lender said it will raise the funds in FY21 through a public offer, a private placement of senior secured notes in the US dollar or any other convertible currency.

"To examine the status and decide on long term fund raising in single/multiple  to US$ 1.5 Billion (US$ One and a Half Billion) under Reg-S/144A, through a public offer and/or private placement of senior unsecured notes in US Dollar or any other convertible currency during FY 2020-21," SBI said in the regulatory filing.

On Tuesday, global ratings agency Moody's downgraded the long-term local and foreign currency deposit ratings of the state-owned lender to Baa3 from Baa2 citing economic disruption caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

"Economic disruption caused by the coronavirus outbreak and the downgrade of the sovereign rating are the key drivers for today's rating actions," Moody's said on Tuesday. The other ten banks on which the brokerage took rating action included HDFC Bank, IndusInd Bank, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India, Canara Bank, Bank of India, Central Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank and EXIM Bank.

SBI is scheduled to report its March 2020 quarter result (Q4FY20) on Friday. So far in this fiscal, the public sector lender has underperformed the benchmark Nifty. Between April 1 and June 2, the scrip has fallen 13.5 per cent as against the 16 per cent rise in the benchmark Nifty. Shares of SBI ended the intraday trade at Rs 174.50, down 0.40 points, or 0.23 per cent on NSE today.

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