Canara Bank board approves plan to raise Rs 8,000 crore via equity, debt

Canara Bank's board on Friday approved a plan to raise up to Rs 8,000 crore through equity and debt as it prepares to beef up its balance sheet for future needs. The board gave a nod to raise up to Rs 5,000 crore via equity in its meeting earlier today, Canara Bank said in an exchange filing. The bank "decided to raise equity share capital amounting to Rs 5,000 crore (including premium) by way of qualified institutional placements (QIP)/ rights issue/ ESPS/private placement/ preferential allotment/any other approved means during the financial year (FY) 2020-21 subject to market conditions and necessary approvals."

Further, the board of the public sector bank approved to raise capital through additional tier I Basel III compliant bonds to the extent of Rs 3,000 crore during FY21.

On July 7, Canara Bank had announced that a meeting of the board of directors of the bank is scheduled on July 10, 2020 to consider the capital raising plan of the bank for the year 2020-21.

Meanwhile, Canara Bank reported widening of its standalone net loss to Rs 3,259.33 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2020. The bank had registered a net loss of Rs 551.53 crore during the corresponding January-March 2019 quarter. However, income on a standalone basis during January-March rose to Rs 14,222.39 crore, compared with Rs 14,000.43 crore in the year-ago period. For the full year 2019-20, there was a loss of Rs 2,235.72 crore. Canara Bank is a state-owned commercial bank with headquarters in Bengaluru. The Central government held 78.52 per cent stake in the bank as of March 31, 2020.Also read: COVID-19 fallout: Home sales plummet 67% in April-June across Mumbai, Bengaluru, other major cities

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