Norwest part-exits India-listed RBL Bank

The venture capital firm sold 5.6 million shares in RBL at INR510 apiece, according to market data, a slight premium to the November 23 closing price of INR508. On November 24, the day of the sale, the stock rose as high as INR524.25 before closing at INR512.10.

This is Norwest's second partial exit from RBL this year: in August the firm sold 6 million shares at INR515.04 each, at the same time that Samara Capital sold 3.61 million shares for INR515. According to RBL's most recent annual report Norwest had 12.5 million shares in the bank – a 3.9% stake – as of March 2017. The latest sale leaves Norwest with 884,000 shares.

RBL was founded in 1943 as Ratnakar Bank and offers comprehensive banking services for businesses and consumers across India. As of March, the bank had 239 branches and 375 ATMs across 20 states and territories in India, serving 2.8 million customers. Its revenue for the year ended March 2017 was INR44.7 billion, up from INR32 billion the year before.

Prior to its 2015 IPO RBL received several rounds of PE funding from investors including Samara, Norwest, CDC Group, Baer Capital Partners, Gaja Capital and Capvent. Baer made a full exit in the INR12 billion IPO, while Gaja and Capvent made partial exits.

CDC has committed another INR3.3 billion since the IPO in the form of tier two debt capital, and also participated in a INR16.8 billion investment earlier this year as part of a consortium that included Multiples Alternative Asset Management. The Asian Development Bank, International Finance Corporation, Cartica Capital and Motilal Oswal Private Equity also held stakes in the company as of March 2017.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Financials
• Open market
• India
• Norwest Venture Partners
• Exit
• Financial Services