SBI to Collaborate on Acquisition Finance

Mumbai, Nov 4 (PTI) The country's largest lender SBI is open to collaborating with foreign banks once the Reserve Bank makes it possible for local banks to do acquisition finance, its Chairman CS Setty said on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters, weeks after the central bank announced its intent to allow Indian banks to fund companies for executing domestic acquisitions, Setty acknowledged that the "MNC (multinational companies) banks" are dominant in the space.

Setty said SBI has always been doing outbound acquisition finance and has also gained considerable expertise in this aspect.

"Yes, I think some of the MNC banks are very well into this activity. We don't mind collaborating with them," he said.

SBI can also use its in-house investment banking unit SBI Capital Markets' expertise for such deals, Setty said.

The country's largest lender knows domestic corporates very well, which, coupled with the ability to fund outbound finance, places it very well, the SBI chairman added.

Setty said the bank has not firmed up its views on the RBI move to allow acquisition financing yet, and added that it will be doing so soon.

The bank has some concerns about the insistence to cap the overall lending for mergers and acquisition finance at 10 per cent of its core capital, and will write to the RBI on the same through the Indian Banks Association, he pointed out.

He also said that the M&A finance activity will be undertaken by the bank through its already existing corporate finance vertical, Setty said, adding that it is unlikely to form a new vertical for it.

Meanwhile, Setty said that it will be launching a newer version of its mobile application Yono by the end of December this year, and added that it will be a completely revamped version of the app.

The bank is targeting to more than double the overall number of mobile banking users to 20 crore in an unspecified time, and the new version of the app will be able to handle the traffic that comes through it, Setty said.