Govt committed to rights issue: SBI chief

SBI Chairman Pratip Chaudhuri on Monday said the government is "committed" to infusing funds into it through the bank's proposed rights issue.

"The government is quite committed on the rights issue and it is not right for the bank to put a finger on the quantum," Chaudhuri said.

Chaudhuri was speaking on the sidelines of a function held to announce help for a school as a part of the bank's corporate social responsibility.

State Bank of India (SBI) has proposed to come out with a rights of Rs 20,000 crore. At present, the government has a 59.4 per cent stake in the bank. In case a rights issue is approved and the government wants to retain its holding at the current level, it would need to subscribe to 59.4 per cent of the total rights being issued.

While the country's largest lender had a total capital adequacy of 11.6 per cent as on June 30, the core tier-I component stood at 7.6 per cent.

The bank's chief Financial Officer Diwakar Gupta had last week said that it can see through this fiscal considering its credit growth targets but will definitely need to augment it in next fiscal.

Chaudhuri on Monday said the bank is looking at a credit growth of 16-19 per cent for the fiscal.

The SBI chairman added that the bank is sufficiently capitalised on tier-II and will not be looking at any bond sale in the near-term.

SBI will be adding 600-800 branches to its present network of over 13,000 branches, he said.

He said the bank will be spending Rs 80 crore this fiscal on CSR initiatives which will involve donation of 10 fans each to a school in the vicinity of all the 13,000 branches.