Yes Bank to Raise $2 Billion in Share Sale to Lift Capital

Yes Bank Ltd., the Indian lender that was rescued this year after being inundated with bad loans, plans to raise as much as 150 billion rupees ($2 billion) in a public offering to shore up capital.

The share offering will be from July 15 to 17, according to a stock exchange filing Thursday. The Mumbai-based bank had earlier planned to raise at least 80 billion rupees, people with knowledge of the matter said last month.

Indian banks are boosting balance sheets in anticipation of more soured debts as the coronavirus hammers businesses and leaves millions jobless. The Reserve Bank of India barred Yes Bank from paying some bondholders last month after its capital adequacy ratio fell below the minimum regulatory requirement.

Yes Bank will sell the shares to foreign and domestic institutions as well as retail investors, it had said earlier. State Bank of India, the companys largest shareholder, has already committed 17.6 billion rupees.

Shares of Yes Bank climbed as much as 5.6% on Thursday morning in Mumbai.

The lender received a capital infusion of 100 billion rupees from eight local lenders led by SBI in March, as part of a bailout plan by the central bank.

(Updates with details of the sale in the fourth paragraph)