Bandhan Bank plans IPO in 2018, appoints Ashok Kumar Lahiri as chairman

Kolkata - Bandhan Bank, the first bank to be set up in West Bengal after Independence, plans to go for an IPO in 2018. The bank will be inaugurated by President Pranab Mukherjee on August 23, 2015. “We will have to go for IPO after three years of starting operations in 2015 as per RBI guidelines. President Pranab Mukherjee will inaugurate the bank,” MD and CEO of Bandhan Bank Chandra Sekhar Ghosh told reporters here today. He said that to start with, 630 branches would be opened across 22 states, with 247 in West Bengal alone. Nearly 250 ATMs would be installed to start with, he said. [caption id=“attachment_2336066” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  MD and CEO Chandra Shekhar Ghosh. Image: Bandhan website[/caption] Ghosh said that Bandhan, which was an MFI and then got transformed into a bank after the RBI granted the universal banking licence, would have two functional divisions namely, micro-banking and general banking. With a capital base of Rs 3,200 crore at the time of starting banking operations, the bank would initially focus on deposit taking activity. The present business size of Bandhan Bank is Rs 10,000 crore, all of which were in the form of advances to self-help groups which were extended micro-finance, he said. Ghosh said that Bandhan Bank is targetting an account holder base of 1 crore to start with. The logo of the bank was designed by O&M, he said, adding the number of branches would go up to 1,000 in two years’ time. After getting the in-principle banking licence in April 2014, Bandhan had hired an additional 8,000 employees to the existing 13,000. “Our staffing requirement would be another 3,000 to 4,000 down the line,” he said. Others, who would be present at the inauguration, are SEBI and IRDA chairmen besides two RBI deputy governors. “We have also invited West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee,” Ghosh said. The Bandhan Bank board has been drawn from experienced bankers like former chairmen of PSU banks like Corporation Bank and United Bank of India. The chairman of the board would be Ashok Kumar Lahiri, former Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India, former deputy MD of Axis Bank and present CGM of Nabard. IFC, GIC of Singapore, SIDBI, Ghosh and three trusts were the shareholders of the bank. PTI