Chandigarh: Punjab-based Capital Small Finance Bank (CSFB) has raised Rs 64.66 crore through 14.7 per cent equity sale to ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, HDFC Standard Life Insurance and Pi Ventures LLP.

The three companies have acquired a stake of 4.9 per cent each in Capital Small Finance Bank. KPMG acted as a financial advisor to CSFB for the fund raise.

The Jalandhar-based bank, India’s first Small Finance Bank, commenced operations on April 24, 2016.

Capital Local Area Bank, along with nine other entities, was granted in principle approval by the Reserve Bank of India to set up ‘Small Finance Bank’ on September 16, 2015. CLAB, the largest Local Area Bank in the country, before conversion to Small Finance Bank has been into operations for last 16 years with excellent performance in all spheres.

“During the current financial year, expansion has been planned to the states of Haryana, Delhi and NCR along with other parts of Punjab by adding 40 new branches,” Sarvjit Singh Samra Managing Director Capital Small Finance Bank said in a statement. As many as 26 new branches have become operational since then, taking the total number of branches to 73 consisting 35 rural, 27 semi urban, 7 urban and 4 metropolitan, Samra maintained.

The Bank transitioned from a Local Area Bank to Small Finance Bank with 47 branches. The total business of the Bank at present has crossed Rs 3,750 crore with more than 4,32,000 accounts.

Capital Small Finance Bank has been top-ranked in banking sector amongst India’s 100 best companies to work for 2016 by ‘Great Place to Work Institute’ in India for the second consecutive year. Conversion of the Bank to Small Finance Bank has removed the geographical barriers for expansion. This will result in exponential growth of the Bank in all spheres. The business of the Bank is expected to grow to Rs 12,000 crore by March 31, 2021, Samra said.

Source: Economic Times