Uco Bank set to get Rs 681 cr capital from government

Moneycontrol Bureau

State owned UCO Bank is set to receive a capital support of Rs 681 crore from the government, through allotment of preferential shares of 8.80 crore at a market price of Rs 77.46 per share. In its extraordinary general meeting held in Kolkata bank shareholders on Wednesday approved the decision.
"The chairman (Arun Kaul) further informed that at the issue price of Rs 77.46 per share, the bank will issue and allot upto 8,79,16,343 equity shares to Government of India against the proposed capital infusion of Rs 681 crore requested by the bank," the bank said in a notice sent to stock exchanges.
This infusion will increase the government's stake to 69.3% from 65.19% held earlier in the bank. The issue price is at premium of Rs 67.46 compared to the face value of Rs 10 each.
Currently, most of the public sector banks are capital-starved. The government had budgeted around Rs 12,000 crore for capital infusion in all such banks. In the Union Budget 2013-14, the Finance Minister proposed to pump in around Rs 14,000 crore.
As per the RBI estimates, Indian banking system needs Rs 5 lakh crore capital by FY2017-18 to meet the requirement of Basel-III norms, the international standard for banks' capital infusion. The Government of India, the majority stake holder of all PSU banks, needs to pump in Rs.90,000 crore worth of capital to retain its shareholding.