Punjab National Bank has reserved 800,000 shares of its proposed public offer for small investors holding the bank's shares worth up to Rs 100,000.
In its draft Red Herring Prospectus filed with SEBI, PNB proposes to reserve 10 per cent of the issue size of 80 million shares for retail shareholders who holds shares worth up to Rs 100,000.
PNB, which targets to raise close to Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) through its second public offer of 80 million shares, has also fixed February 11 as the specified date for the purpose of ascertaining the eligible existing shareholders who can apply in this category, it informed the National Stock Exchange on Monday.
All the existing shareholders whose names appear in the register of shareholders at the end of the close of business hours on February 11 and whose holding on that day does not exceed Rs 100,000, based on the closing price in NSE on February 10, shall be eligible to apply for the equity shares of the bank in aforesaid reserved category.
PNB has already appointed six merchant bankers to manage the public offer including Kotak Securities, J M Morgan Stanley, DSP Merrill Lynch, Enam Financial Services and I-Sec.
The issue is slated to bring down the government's holding in the bank to 57 per cent from 80 per cent. PNB aims to hike its capital base by Rs 3,000 crore by this fiscal for meeting business needs and making higher provisions to adhere to Basle-II norms by 2006.
PNB issue would be priced through the book building route, a senior bank official said. PNB shares are quoted at about Rs 415 at major bourses.