Central Bank Receives Permission For IPO

Mumbai: Central Bank of India mulls to hit the domestic capital market with an initial public offering by June this year. The bank will issue 80 million shares with a face value of Rs 10 each. It has received permission (from the Government) for the equity issue. The Government holding after the IPO will come down to about 80 per cent from 100 per cent. The lead bank managers for the issue will be ICICI Securities, IDBI Capital Market Services and Enam Securities among others. The bank will soon register its red herring prospectus with the SEBI. The bank has recorded a 93.77 per cent growth in net profit to Rs 498 crore for the year ended March 31, 2007 against Rs 257 crore for the corresponding period last year. The bank has registered a 28.94 per cent growth in total business as on March 31, 2007 from Rs 1,05,678 crore last year to Rs 1,36,265 crore. The total deposits grew by 24.51 per cent to Rs 82,776 crore as against last year's Rs 66,483 crore.