RBL Bank, earlier known as Ratnakar Bank, has drawn up plans to raise about Rs 1000 crore through an initial public offer in the current financial year. Vishwavir Ahuja, MD and CEO, said the bank has reached a tipping point, in terms of balance sheet size, profitability and number of branches, with all three parameters seeing robust growth in the last four years with FY 14 likely to show balance sheet size of Rs 18,000 crore against Rs 2,300 crore in July 2010, when the new management took charge. Further, its profit is expected to be close to the three digits mark in FY14 against Rs 19 crore in 2010-11. From about 50 branches, predominantly concentrated in Maharashtra and Karnataka, in 2010, the 71-year-old bank now has 175 branches spread across 12 states. He added that in this background, the bank would set for a round of capital raising via an IPO for the next three years of growth. He said the IPO could be in this calendar year or in the fourth quarter of this financial year. The bank received investment amounting to $28 million from UK-based CDC Group by which it has acquired 4.8% stake in the bank.
