SBIN

MUMBAI, July 29 (Reuters) - India's SBI Cards and Payment Services SBIC.NS accepted bids worth 20 billion rupees ($230.33 million) for bonds maturing in three years, three traders said on Tuesday.

It will pay a coupon of 7.05% and had invited commitment bids for the issue earlier in the day, they said.

The company did not immediately respond to a Reuters email seeking comment.

Here is the list of deals reported so far on July 29:

*Size includes base plus greenshoe for some issues

($1 = 86.8330 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Dharamraj Dhutia and Khushi Malhotra; Editing by Vijay Kishore)

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MUMBAI, July 28 (Reuters) - India's SBI Cards and Payment Services SBIC.NS plans to raise 20 billion rupees ($231.3 million) through the sale of bonds maturing in three years, three traders said on Monday.

It has invited coupon and commitment bids for the issue on Tuesday, they said.

The company did not immediately respond to a Reuters email seeking comment.

Here is the list of deals reported so far on July 28:

*Size includes base plus greenshoe for some issues

($1 = 86.4550 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Khushi Malhotra and Dharamraj Dhutia; Editing by Sumana Nandy)

(([email protected]; [email protected]))

July 25 (Reuters) - State Bank of India SBI.NS:

• STATE BANK OF INDIA - RUMA DEY APPOINTED DEPUTY MANAGING DIRECTOR FOR SPECIAL PROJECTS

Source text: ID:nBSE4LDp48

Further company coverage: SBI.NS

(([email protected];))

** Shares of SBI Life Insurance Co Ltd SBIL.NS 1.1% lower at 3,144.80 rupees ahead of first-quarter results

** Analysts expect annual premium equivalent to grow at a slow pace of high-single digit percentage

** Value of new business and margins seen improving vs previous year; Ambit Capital says growth aided by rise in non-participating policies

** Analysts see SBIL maintaining its cost leadership

** Outlook on growth of bancassurance channel, or sale of policies through the parent banks, is key - brokerages

** Analysts covering SBIL rate it "buy" on avg; median PT is 2,000 rupees - data compiled by LSEG

** Stock up ~29% so far this year, among top gainers in 20-member Nifty Financial Services .NIFTYFIN index

(Reporting by Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru)

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July 23 (Reuters) - State Bank of India SBI.NS:

• STATE BANK OF INDIA - PARMINDER SINGH APPOINTED DEPUTY MD

• STATE BANK OF INDIA - RUMA DEY APPOINTED DEPUTY MD (OSD) CORPORATE CENTRE

Source text: ID:nBSE3cmmFN

Further company coverage: SBI.NS

(([email protected];))

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own. Updates to add graphic.

By Shritama Bose

MUMBAI, July 22 (Reuters Breakingviews) - State Bank of India SBI.NS looks like it's about to become a more frequent capital raiser. This week the country's largest lender, which is 57%-owned by New Delhi, sold 250 billion rupees ($2.9 billion) worth of shares. The rationale was to increase its equity ratios. Yet, even though the deal is India's largest-ever secondary stock placement to institutions, it hardly moves the needle. Ideally, a company wanting to bolster its balance sheet would trim dividends first. But the government wants state-run companies to bump up these payments by 25%.

Oddly, the bank doesn't appear to need to increase its capital. At 10.8%, its common equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio is above the regulatory minimum of 8.8%. SBI Chair C.S. Setty said in May the bank has enough "firepower" as it stands to grow its loan book by up to 8 trillion rupees ($93 billion), or 19%.

The issue seems to be that SBI's CET1 ratio is below the 14% average for the Indian banking sector and even further behind the 16% and 18% buffers at privately held peers ICICI Bank ICBK.NS and HDFC Bank HDBK.NS. Since both those rivals trade at higher multiples to book than SBI, there's some logic to wanting to catch up.

The share sale doesn't get it very far, though. SBI has some $421 billion of risk-weighted assets, so the extra $2.9 billion only takes its CET1 ratio to 11.5%.

The additional capital has another effect of reducing the lender's return on equity: apply it to the most recent financial year, and the 17% ROE, per LSEG, would drop by just under a percentage point. That would, on paper, still leave it besting HDFC's 14% showing and lagging ICICI's 18%. But both are cranking out those numbers with much higher capital. Moreover, SBI's ROE is looking harder to sustain with bank credit growing at just over 9%, its slowest pace in three years.

Perhaps Setty and his executives are comfortable with only slightly narrowing its capital gap to peers. Assuming they're not, they have two options: sell more shares or sell more assets. Earlier this year, for example, SBI offloaded a 13% stake in Yes Bank YESB.NS to Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group 8316.T. The lender could follow that up with peddling its remaining 11% chunk in Yes, or selling or listing its general insurer and its asset management subsidiary.

That'll keep SBI and its bankers busy for a while.

Follow Shritama Bose on LinkedIn and X.

CONTEXT NEWS

State Bank of India on July 21 said it had completed a sale of shares worth 250 billion rupees ($2.89 billion) to institutional investors. Books were covered 4.5 times, and foreign long-term investors bought 24% of the float, the lender said.

SBI priced the issue at 817 rupees per share, a 1.8% discount to the closing price of 831.70 rupees on July 16, IFR reported on July 18, citing unnamed people with knowledge of the transaction.

Demand for the transaction was led by domestic institutions, with state-backed Life Insurance Corporation of India committing 80 billion rupees, per IFR. Nomura, Marshall Wace, Millennium, HDFC Mutual Fund, Quant Mutual Fund and ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund also participated in the issue, the report added.

(Editing by Antony Currie; Production by Ujjaini Dutta)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on BOSE/[email protected]))

July 21 (Reuters) - Life Insurance Corporation of India LIFI.NS:

• LIFE INSURANCE CORPORATION OF INDIA - LIC INCREASES SHAREHOLDING IN SBI TO 9.49%

• LIFE INSURANCE CORPORATION OF INDIA - LIC BUYS SBI SHARES FOR 50 BILLION RUPEES AT 817 RUPEES EACH

• LIFE INSURANCE CORPORATION OF INDIA - LIC BUYS SBI SHARES THROUGH QIP

Source text: ID:nBSE4g9K42

Further company coverage: LIFI.NS

(([email protected];))

By Ashwin Manikandan

July 18 (Reuters) - India's central bank is close to finalising rules for banks and financial institutions to disclose and manage risks from climate change, three sources aware of the matter said.

The move runs counter to several top global banks including JP Morgan, Citibank, Morgan Stanley and HSBC, which have decided to scale back their climate commitments with the re-election of climate-sceptic U.S. President Donald Trump being seen as a trigger.

Getting a better idea of how, and to what extent, money is flowing to green investments is a central part of global efforts to move to a low-carbon economy, with countries from the UK to Japan making such disclosures mandatory.

The Indian central bank's norms, which have been in the works since 2022, are expected to ask banks and financial institutions to make regular disclosures about climate-related risks in their loan portfolios along with mitigation strategies and targets, the sources said.

The disclosures are likely to be on a voluntary basis from fiscal year 2027 and then mandatory from fiscal year 2028. India's financial year runs from April till March.

Banks will also be asked to conduct periodic stress tests to gauge the impact of adverse climate events such as floods, heatwaves and cyclones on borrowers and the economy, based on a guidance note which the central bank is also likely to issue soon, the sources added.

All three sources requested anonymity as they are not authorised to speak with media.

The RBI did not respond to an email from Reuters.

The central bank's decision to move forward with the rules has not been previously reported.

The Reserve Bank of India has previously recognised climate change as a source of major financial concern, and released a draft standard disclosure framework in February 2024 for public feedback.

“The signal from the central bank based on recent meetings is that the detailed norms are almost finalised and are expected very soon,” the first source said.

Many banks have already started collating data and setting targets to meet the disclosure standards, the source said.

Some large banks have put out tenders to bring in climate consultants to help them with the disclosures, according to public documents.

ASSESSING BORROWERS FOR CLIMATE RISK

The RBI's decision to move ahead with climate disclosures for its banks comes soon after India released a draft framework aimed at facilitating a greater flow of resources to climate-friendly sectors.

India is also gearing up to publish a new national emissions-reduction target ahead of the next round of global climate talks in Brazil in November.

India, the world's third largest polluter behind China and the United States, currently aims to achieve a net zero emissions target by 2070.

As part of the central bank's climate disclosure rules, banks will be required to calculate gross emissions of borrowers and disclose this information by asset classes and industries, according to the draft norms.

Such disclosures are expected to be included in their financial statements.

Separately, the central bank has also shared a 52-page draft note with large banks, a copy of which Reuters has reviewed, prescribing a methodology to forecast and analyse the impact of adverse climate events as well as transition risks on borrowers' ability to repay loans.

The transition risks are those which emerge from the changing consumer behaviour, policy and technology changes, as the world moves towards a low-carbon economy, as per the note.

While banks are preparing to disclose climate risk embedded in their loan portfolios, they do not expect these disclosures to impact loan pricing in the short term.

"As of now we don't have enough granular data to reliably price in these risks in our portfolios, but the long-term approach could be in that direction," said the second source, who is a banker at a state-owned lender.

(Reporting by Ashwin Manikandan; Editing by Ira Dugal and Kim Coghill)

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July 16 (Reuters) - State Bank of India SBI.NS:

• STATE BANK OF INDIA SET TO LAUNCH 250 BILLION RUPEES QIP TODAY - CNBC-TV18

• LIC LIKELY TO BE KEY PARTICIPANT IN SBI QIP, COULD BID FOR OVER 50 BILLION RUPEES - CNBC-TV18

• SBI QIP MAY OFFER SMALL DISCOUNT TO CURRENT MARKET PRICE - CNBC-TV18 CITING SOURCES

Further company coverage: SBI.NS

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BENGALURU, July 15 (Reuters) - India's Mahanagar Telephone Nigam MTNL.NS has defaulted on loans totaling 85.85 billion rupees ($1 billion), the public-sector telecom firm said on Tuesday.

The loans were made by seven public sector, with Union Bank of India UNBK.NS and Indian Overseas Bank IOBK.NS having the biggest exposure, MTNL said in an exchange filing.

($1 = 85.8860 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Nishit Navin; Editing by Anil D'Silva)

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July 11 (Reuters) - State Bank of India SBI.NS:

• SALE OF SHARES IN TAMILNADU TELECOMMUNICATIONS

• SALE OF 2.02% STAKE IN TAMILNADU TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Source text: ID:nBSE9pVGB1

Further company coverage: SBI.NS

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July 10 (Reuters) - State Bank of India SBI.NS:

• STATE BANK OF INDIA - TO CONSIDER FUND RAISING ON JULY 16

• SBI- TO CONSIDER RAISING FUNDS DURING FY26 VIA ISSUANCE OF BASEL III COMPLIANT CAPITAL BONDS IN INR

• STATE BANK OF INDIA - TO CONSIDER RAISING FUNDS VIA ISSUANCE OF BASEL III COMPLIANT CAPITAL BONDS IN INR

Source text: [ID:]

Further company coverage: SBI.NS

(([email protected];))

July 3 (Reuters) - Reliance Infrastructure Ltd RLIN.NS:

• SBI ACTION ON RELIANCE COMMUNICATIONS HAS NO IMPACT ON RELIANCE INFRASTRUCTURE

Source text: ID:nBSEb2jzw

Further company coverage: RLIN.NS

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July 2 (Reuters) - India's Reliance Communications RLCM.NS said late on Tuesday that State Bank of India SBI.NS has decided to report its loan account as "fraud" in a case dating back to August 2016.

The state-run lender would also report the name of Reliance Communications' former director Anil Dhirajlal Ambani to the Reserve Bank of India, the company said, under rules that require key management personnel of fraud accounts to be reported to the regulator.

The firm, which is undergoing insolvency proceedings, is a group firm of the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group.

Anil is the brother of Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, who chairs the oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries RELI.NS.

State Bank of India and Anil Ambani did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

(Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)

(([email protected]; X: @MukherjeeHritam;))

By Dharamraj Dhutia and Siddhi Nayak

MUMBAI, June 27 (Reuters) - State Bank of India SBI.NS is likely to kick off a debt fundraising cycle for state-run lenders in this fiscal year over the next couple of months, with a Basel III-compliant tier II bond issue, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.

India's largest lender is looking to raise about 50 billion rupees ($584.59 million) through those bonds, with a 10-year or 15-year maturity in July or August, the sources said.

SBI did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The sources declined to be named as they are not authorised to speak to the media.

"The initial level talks have already started, but the duration would be finalised looking at the rates at the time of issuance and investors' interest," one of the sources said.

The source further added, SBI could also explore a 15-year structure with a call option at the end of 10 years, like its previous issue.

In September, the bank had raised 75 billion rupees through 15-year tier II bonds, which had a call option at the end of 10 years. In the previous financial year, SBI had raised 150 billion rupees through tier II bonds.

SBI has not tapped the bond market in the first half of 2025 and shelved a plan to issue infrastructure bonds in March due to elevated yields.

No other state-run lender has tapped the debt market in the first quarter of this financial year that started on April 1.

ICICI Bank is the only lender to tap the bond market. It raised 10 billion rupees through 15-year tier II bonds earlier this week, with a call option at the end of 10 years at a 7.45% coupon.

($1 = 85.5300 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Dharamraj Dhutia and Siddhi Nayak; Editing by Anil D'Silva)

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-- Source link: https://tinyurl.com/48wvvpv5

-- Note: Reuters has not verified this story and does not vouch for its accuracy

((Bengaluru newsroom, [email protected]))

June 24 (Reuters) - BLS E-Services Ltd BLSE.NS:

• BLS E-SERVICES LTD - SUBSIDIARY TO BUY CSPS OF SBI & HDFC BANK

• BLS E-SERVICES LTD - DEAL VALUED AT APPROX. 65 MILLION RUPEES

Source text: ID:nBSE1r9ZDJ

Further company coverage: BLSE.NS

(([email protected];))

Adds Warburg's response in paragraph 4

June 23 (Reuters) - U.S.-based private equity firm Warburg Pincus is in talks to sell its stake in State Bank of India’s SBI.NS general insurance unit, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Warburg Pincus is negotiating with Premji Invest, the investment unit of Indian billionaire Azim Premji, and SBI, the country’s largest lender, to divest its 10% stake in SBI General Insurance SBIR.NS, the report said.

The transaction could value SBI General Insurance at as much as $4.5 billion, Bloomberg News reported.

Reuters could not independently verify the report. Premji Invest and SBI did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment, while Warburg declined to comment.

Premji Invest and a Warburg Pincus affiliate bought stakes of 16.01% and approximately 10%, respectively, in SBI General in 2019, in a deal worth $432.38 million.

SBI currently owns about 70% of SBI General Insurance.

(Reporting by Manvi Pant in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Tasim Zahid)

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June 18 (Reuters) - Jio Financial Services Ltd JIOF.NS:

• BUYS 79,080,000 EQUITY SHARES OF JPBL FOR 1.05 BILLION RUPEES

• ACQUIRED 79.1 MLN SHARES OF JIO PAYMENTS BANK FROM STATE BANK OF INDIA

Source text: ID:nBSE8RnQVS

Further company coverage: JIOF.NS

(([email protected];;))

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

By Shritama Bose

MUMBAI, June 12 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Foreign money managers are pouring into India to cater to the rising rich. Many of them may find success easier to come by than they did in neighbouring China.

The race kicked off in earnest this week when BlackRock BLK.N won regulatory approval to launch a wealth business, within a month of securing a go-ahead for its mutual fund operations. The world’s largest asset manager led by Larry Fink is back in the country after exiting a local joint venture in 2018. This time the U.S. firm is in partnership with Jio Financial Services JIOF.NS, an upstart spun off from tycoon Mukesh Ambani’s $227 billion Reliance Industries RELI.NS.

Others present also are digging deeper to tap everyday savers. Armed with a new licence, HSBC HSBA.L will push into 20 new cities in search of wealth clients. Its rival Standard Chartered STAN.L is pivoting toward affluent clients and away from single product relationships. Meanwhile, Blackstone bought wealth services provider ASK Investment Managers in 2022, whose parent now plans to launch a mutual fund.

Underway is a dramatic shift in how Indians put money to work. Households' net financial wealth, after deducting liabilities, rose 249% to $3 trillion over the nearly 12 years to the end of March 2023, per researchers at the Reserve Bank of India. Bank deposits account for 43% of financial assets, down from 51% in March 2012.

In effect, households are moving deposits into riskier instruments. Pumped up by a high-voltage marketing campaign targeting mom-and-pop savers, the mutual fund industry’s net assets under management stood at 72 trillion rupees ($845 billion) as of May, rising 22.5% year-on-year. Mutual funds’ share of net financial savings was 8.4% at the end of March 2023, up from less than 1% a decade ago, per data from industry group Association of Mutual Funds in India and research firm Crisil Intelligence. And there’s plenty of runway for growth; the industry counts just 3% of the population as customers.

Beyond everyday savers, the number of Indian ultra-high net worth individuals will increase to 19,908, a 50% increase during the five years to 2028, property consultancy Knight Frank reckons, faster than in any other geography. There’s also rising interest from richer parts of the 35 million-strong Indian diaspora living to invest at home.

To be sure, by some measure India currently has just one twelfth of the investable wealth assets under management that China had in 2020. Ping An Asset Management alone shepherds funds nearly equivalent in value to those of the entire Indian asset management industry. Yet the smaller opportunity may be easier for Western financial firms hungry for growth to tap.

A sluggish economy, poor stock market returns, and geopolitical tensions dim the allure of China. Asset managers including Fidelity and Schroders have cut costs and scaled back expansion plans in the People’s Republic. India not only saw GDP growth of 7.4% in the March quarter, but its stock market is booming too.

Unlike in China where equities have miserably failed to reflect decades of strong economic growth, Indian stocks are better correlated to GDP. Mutual fund investors in India are largely equity-oriented; in China, 68% of flows were into fixed income instruments in 2022, per Fitch Ratings.

Of course, local competition is formidable. There are 51 mutual fund houses, and the largest by assets under management are backed by Indian banks with a foreign partner: State Bank of India’s SBI.NS joint venture with France’s Amundi AMUN.PA leads, followed by ICICI Bank ICBK.NS with Prudential PRU.L.

What’s new is the potential for digitisation to drive down high expenses. Thanks to a distributor-led model, the asset-weighted median expense ratio for equity funds, a measure of cost, was 1.78% in India, higher than 1.75% for China and 1.37% for Korea in 2022, data from Morningstar shows.

In partnering with Jio Financial, whose telecom affiliate counts 477 million subscribers, BlackRock probably sees an opportunity to scale up quickly and use technology to cut out the middleman. Only 41% of mutual funds' assets under management are sourced directly from investors, per AMFI and Crisil Intelligence, and the share is probably lower by number of accounts.

If executed well, the BlackRock-Jio duo will disrupt the status quo and eat into the business of homegrown technology-led brokers like Zerodha and the soon-to-go-public Groww, which sells one in every four “systematic-investment plans” where individuals commit a fixed amount, usually monthly, to mutual funds. Both privately-owned companies might be worth up to $7 billion each. Singapore's StashAway, backed by Hamilton Lane and others, has secured over $1 billion in assets under management through digital sourcing within just four years of its launch in 2017.

Not everyone feels the prize is within reach. Some of the new strategic partnerships emerging look more like an exit. UBS UBSG.S is acquiring 5% of Mumbai-listed $5 billion 360 One ONEW.NS and is transferring the onshore wealth business it inherited through the acquisition of Credit Suisse to the Indian group. The Swiss bank closed its own Indian wealth business roughly a decade ago.

The India opportunity also has some hard-looking longer-term limits. The real value BlackRock might bring to the table for Indian investors probably rests in deploying their money offshore. That edge is dulled by capital controls; New Delhi imposes a $250,000 limit on sending money overseas. That looks more liberal than Beijing’s long-standing limit of $50,000, but India has ramped up taxes on outbound remittances exceeding $11,700. For now, at least, there is plenty to do within India.

Follow Shritama Bose on LinkedIn and X.

(Editing by Una Galani; Production by Aditya Srivastav)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on BOSE/[email protected]))

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

By Shritama Bose

MUMBAI, June 9 (Reuters Breakingviews) - India's status as the fastest-growing major economy isn't impressing everyone. The country's central bank sprung a surprise on Friday, slashing the key policy rate by 50 basis points and the cash reserve ratio for lenders by twice as much. Under new Governor Sanjay Malhotra, the Reserve Bank of India is putting more emphasis on supporting GDP. That's fine so long as it can fulfil its inflation-targeting mandate when the need arises.

India last month claimed its position as the world's fourth-largest economy, overtaking Japan. Yet the 6.5% clip at which it grew during the year to the end of March was its slowest pace in four years. That's well behind the average 7.8% headline number the World Bank estimates the South Asian country needs to achieve its aim of high-income status by 2047, the 100th anniversary of independence.

That's the goal Malhotra seems focused on. Barely six months into his role, the former bureaucrat has reduced the central bank's policy rate by a whole percentage point to 5.5%. Further cuts face a higher bar, he said on Friday, justifying the front-loading by citing the need for certainty in an environment of global churn.

By bringing rate cuts forward, Malhotra may avoid a potential monsoon-induced spike in inflation from getting in the way of monetary easing. It marks a departure from the styles of former governors: Urjit Patel, who stepped down in 2018, instituted inflation targeting as the bank's top policy goal and his successor Shaktikanta Das pushed an intense clampdown on unsecured lending.

The size of the rate move will nudge banks led by the State Bank of India SBI.NS to hasten transmission of the past cuts through loan rates. Lending more is one way to charge up tepid urban spending. Overall consumption accounts for 57% of GDP. Yet there are limits to the RBI's latest actions.

Although the lower reserve ratio for banks will release liquidity worth 2.5 trillion rupees ($29 billion) by December 2025, an almost equivalent or higher sum will be sucked out of the banking system as the RBI unwinds its short bets on the U.S. dollar made to cushion a falling rupee, economists at HDFC Bank reckon. Ultimately the central bank left its GDP forecast of 6.5% for the year ending March 2026 untouched.

Under Malhotra, India's monetary policy may eventually be more supportive to the government's desire for faster growth. Such an outcome would reduce friction between the two sides but the thesis will only be truly tested when retail inflation, currently near a six-year low of 3.16% in April, ticks up higher.

Follow Shritama Bose on LinkedIn and X.

CONTEXT NEWS

The Reserve Bank of India cut its key policy rate by a larger-than-expected 50 basis points on June 6 to 5.5% and changed its monetary policy stance from 'accommodative' to 'neutral', stating that it may have limited space for further easing.

"Certainty in the uncertain environment was necessary; hence the front-loading of rate cuts," RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra said at a press conference on the same day.

He announced a reduction in the cash reserve ratio for banks by one percentage point to 3% in four tranches from September to November 2025, which would release liquidity worth 2.5 trillion rupees ($29 billion) to banks by December 2025.

(Editing by Una Galani; Production by Ujjaini Dutta)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on BOSE/[email protected]))

May 20 (Reuters) - State Bank of India SBI.NS:

• STATE BANK OF INDIA - APPROVED TO EXAMINE STATUS, DECIDE ON LONG TERM FUND RAISING UP TO US$ 3 BILLION

• STATE BANK OF INDIA - FUND RAISING VIA PUBLIC OFFER OR PRIVATE PLACEMENT IN USD

Further company coverage: SBI.NS

(([email protected];))

Corrects paragraph 6 of May 15 story to clarify SMBC will acquire the stake from SBI, not State Bank

By Siddhi Nayak

MUMBAI, May 16 (Reuters) - India's Yes Bank YESB.NS expects Japan's Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp (SMBC) to maintain at least 20% stake in the lender but said that regulatory requirements may be keeping it from raising shareholding significantly beyond that, the bank's chief executive said.

SMBC on Friday said it had signed a definitive agreement to take a 20% stake in Mumbai-based Yes Bank, a deal that marks the largest cross-border merger and acquisition deal in India's financial sector.

SMBC, is a unit of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group 8316.T and is Japan's second-biggest bank.

"For potential capital raises in the future, SMBC would be contributing," Yes Bank's CEO Prashant Kumar told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.

"It also means they (SMBC) would not like to get their stake below 20%."

As part of the deal, SMBC will acquire a 13.19% stake from State Bank of India SBI.NS, also its largest investor, and an aggregate of 6.81% from other banks that had rescued it as a result of the regulator-led restructuring in March 2020.

SMBC's stake buy stopped short of the 25% shareholding, which under Indian regulations triggers an open offer for another 26% from public shareholders at the same price offered to a strategic investor.

The "logical" reason why SMBC did not take a higher stake in Yes Bank was probably to avoid triggering an open offer of shares, and being classified as a promoter, which carries significant regulatory obligations, Kumar said.

Large shareholders with control over a company's operations are termed as "promoters" under Indian regulations and being categorised as one carries tougher reporting requirements.

Kumar expects the regulatory approvals for the deal to come in by September.

The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals from the Reserve Bank of India, Competition Commission of India and shareholders of the Bank.

Shares of Yes Bank have risen 7.5% since the announcement of the deal and, on Wednesday, Moody's Ratings said that SMBC's stake acquisition is credit positive for the Indian lender.

A re-rating, if it happens, will open doors raising funds at a cheaper cost and also expand lending opportunities, Kumar said.

SMBC's focus on large corporate customers will also help the bank expand in areas like transaction banking, he said.

Yes Bank, however, will remain focused on retail lending primarily, which formed 41.2% of its loan book as on March-end.

"I don't think the retail-corporate mix, will change post the deal; we would be more focused towards retail," Kumar said.

(Reporting by Siddhi Nayak, editing by David Evans)

(([email protected]; x.com/siddhiVnayak;))

MUMBAI, May 12 (Reuters) - India said on Monday it has extended financial support to the Maldives by rolling over New Delhi's subscription to a $50 million treasury bill by another year at the request of the archipelago's government.

The State Bank of India SBI.NS has extended the subscription to the bill issued by the Maldives' finance ministry, India's high commission there said in a statement on its X account.

Maldives' Foreign Minister Abdulla Khaleel thanked the Indian government for extending "crucial financial support".

"This timely assistance reflects the close bonds of friendship between Maldives and India and will support the Government's ongoing efforts to implement fiscal reforms for economic resilience," he said on X.

China and India remain the Maldives' biggest creditor nations and both regional rivals vie for influence in the strategically located Indian Ocean nation, whose economy has struggled with low foreign exchange reserves and substantial external debt, sparking fears of a default.

According to World Bank data, the country's total public and publicly guaranteed debt rose to $9.4 billion - or more than 134% of GDP - in the last quarter of 2024, a more than $1 billion uptick year-on-year.

"The credit rating downgrades by Fitch and Moody's in the second half of 2024 have further constrained the country's ability to access markets for new financing," the World Bank said in a report on the Maldives, warning that the country's debt servicing in 2025 and 2026 will see a spike.

(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai and Karin Strohecker in London; editing by Andrew Heavens)

(([email protected];))

** Shares of State Bank of India SBI.NS slip 3.9%, on course for biggest weekly loss since February 28; up 0.8% on Friday

** India's biggest lender by assets posted a nearly 10% drop in Q4 profit on May 3

** Stock set for first weekly loss after three straight weeks of gains

** SBI rated "buy", on average, by analysts, according to data from LSEG

** SBI down 3.3% so far in 2025 vs a 4.5% fall in Nifty PSU bank index .NIFTYPSU

(Reporting by Yagnoseni Das in Bengaluru)

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By Arpan Chaturvedi

NEW DELHI, May 8 (Reuters) - A decision by India's Supreme Court to quash a $2.3-billion steel industry deal six years after an insolvency tribunal approved it has unsettled buyers of distressed assets, throwing a shadow over one of the country's biggest reforms.

Seven lawyers and bankruptcy law experts said the unprecedented ruling had set off alarm among potential buyers of other insolvent or bankrupt firms, fanning fears about the certainty of their investments.

"Several large international funds ... pursuing Indian distressed assets have put their plans on temporary hold," said Kunal Vajani, joint managing partner at Indian law firm Fox & Mandal.

"One client, managing over $3 billion in distressed debt investments globally, explicitly stated they're recalibrating India exposure," he told Reuters.

The insolvency and bankruptcy law unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government in 2016 is often compared to the U.S. Chapter 11 regime, giving creditors the power to take control of distressed companies and revive, or liquidate, them.

The Supreme Court cited major procedural lapses for its decision last week to scrap one of the most successful insolvency deals in India's history, the takeover in 2019 of Bhushan Power by the country's biggest steelmaker, JSW Steel.

"A plea of 'fait accompli' cannot be permitted to be raised by any party," the judges said, employing the Latin term for a deed already done.

Ruling in favour of some dissatisfied creditors, they ordered the liquidation of Bhushan Power and asked banks to return funds recovered during JSW's takeover, raising concerns about the future of a newly rejuvenated and expanded business.

The decision opens the way for successful bids to be challenged on grounds of compliance issues, lawyers said, if necessary by ignoring the practical realities that bedevil India's overburdened judiciary.

"People will now hesitate to take over sick companies out of fear that years later things can suddenly be reversed," Vijai Pratap Singh, a former insolvency tribunal judge, told Reuters.

JSW Steel JSTL.NS has said it is reviewing the decision.

India's law ministry did not respond to Reuters queries on growing concerns about the ruling, but the government has discussed the matter with bankers.

India's lengthy tax investigations and court proceedings often vex domestic and foreign investors.

German carmaker Volkswagen, for instance, is challenging a $1.4-billion demand for alleged tax evasion, saying authorities took 12 years to review shipment records and issue it a warning.

More than 12,000 cases were pending in Indian insolvency courts last year, and the 33 judges of the Supreme Court grapple with a backlog of 81,783 cases, nearly 65% of them more than a year old.

STRICT TIMELINE

India's recent insolvency and bankruptcy law is largely seen as a success, however. By December 2024, 1,119 companies had successfully gone through insolvency, leading to payouts of $42 billion to creditors in total.

Ed-tech company Byju's, once India's biggest startup valued at $22 billion, is undergoing the insolvency procedure, while Go First Airways is in liquidation after revival measures failed.

Lawyers said the JSW outcome would also cast doubt on the law's presumption of a "clean slate", repeatedly upheld by courts to make binding and final the approval of a resolution plan by an insolvency tribunal.

"The aim behind this reform was revival of sick companies instead of liquidation," said Sanjay Jain, India's former additional solicitor-general, one of the government's top lawyers.

"But this ruling fails to take that fact into account."

The Supreme Court said its reversal was necessary because of an "entire spectrum of lacunas and flaws" in the takeover process, including a delay of up to 900 days by JSW in paying its creditors.

In fiscal 2024, an insolvency process took an average of 849 days against a prescribed time of 330 days, government data shows.

India said in 2016 its bankruptcy reform would give a big boost to the ease of doing business, as some of its legal framework for dealing with debt defaults lagged global standards and was more than a century old.

(Editing by Aditya Kalra and Clarence Fernandez)

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May 6 (Reuters) - Yes Bank Ltd YESB.NS:

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• State Bank of India expects RBI to cut repo rate by an aggregate of 75 basis points over June and August

• This would be followed up by another 50 bps of cuts in second half of this financial year, it adds

• "We feel, jumbo cuts of 50 bps could be more effective than secular 25 bps tranches spread over the horizon," Soumya Kanti Ghosh, group chief economic adviser says in a note

• RBI has cut repo rate by 25 bps each in February and April, with broader market consensus eyeing another 50-75 bps of cuts

• Nation's largest lender expects inflation to breach 3% consistently for next 3 months barring any food price shock or heat wave

• It expects currency to stabilise in the 85-87 per dollar range in 2025; 10-year bond yield to move closer towards 6.00% mark

(Reporting by Dharamraj Dhutia)

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Recasts with management commentary throughout

By Siddhi Nayak

MUMBAI, May 3 (Reuters) - State Bank of India SBI.NS, the country's biggest lender by assets, aims for loan growth of 12%-13% in 2025-26, almost flat from the previous year to take account of the impact of global tariffs, its Chairman said on Saturday.

U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs have sent shockwaves through financial markets, shaken investor confidence and complicated the task of forward-planning.

"The uncertainty on tariffs is going to impact the overall economic scenario and investment scenario," C.S. Setty said at a conference in Mumbai.

SBI's loan growth was around 12.03% for 2024-25 and deposits grew by 9.48%.

SBI's corporate loan book pipeline was 3.4 trillion rupees ($40.24 billion) as of the end of March, Setty said, adding deposit growth of 9-10% was expected for this year.

Earlier in the day, SBI reported a nearly 10% drop in net profit for the January-March quarter, pressured by a narrower net interest margin, although it beat analysts' estimates.

Net profit was 186.43 billion rupees for the bank's fourth quarter, compared with a record profit of 206.98 billion rupees a year earlier, but higher than 177.39 billion rupees, according to data compiled by LSEG.

The bank's net interest income, or the difference between interest earned on loans and paid on deposits, increased 2.7% to 427.75 billion rupees.

But its domestic net interest margin, the difference between the interest rate earned and the rate paid out, fell to 3.15%, below the 3.47% result a year earlier.

When interest rates fall, lenders usually cut lending rates faster than deposit rates, which can squeeze their profit margins until deposit rates adjust.

Setty said the pressure on net interest margins will continue assuming another 50-bps rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India in this year.

Separately, the bank's board approved raising 250 billion rupees through equity capital in this year, which Setty said was largely to augment SBI's capital ratios. The timing of the fund raise will be "market determined," he added.

($1 = 84.4990 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Siddhi Nayak; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Barbara Lewis)

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