AU Small Fin Bank raises Rs 525 cr from Temasek arm Camas Inv; sovereign wealth fund's stake in lender up at 4.8%

Mumbai: AU Small Finance Bank on Friday said Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek through its wholly-owned subsidiary Camas Investments Pte has invested Rs 525 crore ($74 million) in the lender by conversion of warrants. With this investment, Temasek has firmed up its stake at 4.8 percent in AU Bank, a statement said. [caption id=“attachment_6013191” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] “The completion of Temaseks investment is a reflection of the uniqueness of our secured retail and steadily growing granular deposit franchise, stable portfolio quality, margins and growth headroom,” its managing director and CEO Sanjay Agarwal said in a release. Temasek has invested the money through the conversion of its 1.01 crore warrants. Post this the bank’s net worth would increase to more than Rs 4,000 crore, it said. It will significantly aid its capital adequacy and core tier I capital which was at healthy levels of 19.7 percent and 16.7 percent, respectively as on 30 September 2019. In June 2018, the sovereign wealth firm had made a commitment to invest Rs 1,000 crore ($141 million) in the small finance lender. The Jaipur-based lender which became a small finance bank in April 2017, has operations across over 500 touch points including 395 bank branches, 96 asset centers, 28 offices and 292 ATMs across 11 states.