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State Bank of India to raise funds via share sale this fiscal year

State Bank of India Ltd., the nation's biggest lender, plans to raise capital by issuing new shares this fiscal year, following similar announcements by some of its private peers. The board of the state-run bank will discuss the proposal for fresh capital either through a follow-on public share sale, rights issue or qualified institutional placement on May 3, according to an exchange filing Tuesday. It did not disclose the amount of equity capital it plans to raise. This comes on the heels of private-sector lender Axis Bank Ltd. approving a plan to raise $6.4 billion through a mix equity and debt. Before that, IDFC First Bank approved raising of $877 million from private equity giant Warburg Pincus and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. The fund raise plan by State Bank of India, or SBI, comes at a time when a gauge of Indian lenders' shares is near its record high, driven by bullishness among investors due to the sector's relative insulation from tariff-related turmoil. SBI is expected to announce its fourth quarter earnings of the fiscal year that ended March 31 on Saturday. The lender with 73 trillion rupees ($856 billion) in assets may show slower profit growth and narrow margins, according to a note by Bloomberg Intelligence. But with the Reserve Bank of India easing liquidity requirements for banks and slashing interest rates last month and the bad-loan formation easing, the conditions for strong lending are favourable, it said.