A year after its launch, Ujjivan Small Finance Bank is seeking extension from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to postpone the public listing of the bank, said Samit Ghosh, chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director of the bank. Ghosh said he plans to merge the listed promoted entity with the bank after five years.
“From a regulatory point of view, there is a requirement that banks after three years will have to do an IPO. But we have already done that. Again to do an IPO does not make sense. We intend to go back to RBI and ask for an extension. Our goal is that in five years we should be able to reverse merge the holding company into the bank. Automatic dilution will happen,” the CEO said.
Ujjivan Small Finance bank, 100% owned by its promoter Ujjivan Financial Services, was one of the 10 entities to receive a licence from RBI to start banking operations in 2016. Ghosh said the bank is looking to increase its focus on housing, micro, small and medium enterprises and retail loans and bring down its microfinance portfolio to 50% of the overall loan book over the next five years. Currently, group loans to women borrowers constitute 85% of the total book.
Ghosh said that he does not aim to compete with large banks and instead aims to make Ujjivan SFB a true mass market bank over the next five years with a focus on underserved customers. He said that the bank is sufficiently capitalised with a capital adequacy ratio of 22%.
After a dismal performance during the last fiscal year due to the impact of the demonetisation, the bank reported a net profit of Rs65.1 crore at the end of March 2018 compared to Rs29.9 crore during the corresponding period last year. The bank’s loan book grew 18.5% year-on-year to Rs7,560 crore during the last financial year.
