INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Carlyle Group plans to sell 10% stake in SBI Cards.MUMBAI: SBI Cards and Payment Services, the credit card arm of State Bank of India (SBI),
aims to raise roughly Rs 9,000 crore in an initial public offering, according to a source familiar with the matter, in a deal set to make a
bumper profit for US private equity firm Carlyle Group.SBI Cards is 74 per cent owned by SBI, the country's largest lender, while Carlyle
Group owns the remaining 26 per cent, a stake which it bought in 2017 from the lending arm of General Electric for about Rs 2,000 crore.SBI
will divest 4 per cent, while Carlyle is set to sell a 10 per cent stake as part of the IPO process, which will also include a sale of fresh
equity worth Rs 500 crore, according to a draft prospectus published by the book runners of the deal.SBI Cards, which filed the draft
prospectus on November 27, did not give valuation details, but based on the anticipated proceeds the IPO is likely to value Carlyle's 26 per
cent stake at close to seven times its 2017 purchase price, and rake in about Rs 6,000 crore from the 10 per cent stake sale alone.The IPO,
which is still awaiting regulatory approval, is poised to be India's biggest this financial year.SBI Cards is the second-largest credit card
issuer in the country, with 9.4 million outstanding cards as of the end of September.Kotak Mahindra Capital, Axis Capital, Bofa Securities,
HSBC, Nomura and SBI Capital Markets are lead managers for the IPO.State-run SBI, which listed its life insurance business in 2017, has been
looking to sell non-core assets in a bid to raise capital.
