Mauritius Unitus Corp, WCP Holdings to exit Ujjivan, IFC will pare stake

KOLKATA: Mauritius Unitus Corp and WCP Holdings III, a private fund of former president of World Bank James Wolfensohn, will offload their shares in Ujjivan Financial Services fully as the micro lender goes public on Thursday.

Women's World Banking Capital Partners will also exit Ujjivan, which is in the process of diluting foreign holding to below 49%, a mandatory rule for its transformation into a small finance bank.

Ujjivan managing director & chief executive Samit Ghosh said the public offer of shares would help it to reduce foreign holding to around 45%. When Reserve Bank of India awarded Ujjivan in-principle small bank finance license along with nine other companies including Equitas Holdings and Janalakshmi Financial Services in September last year, overseas investors had about 90% ownership in Ujjivan.

The IPO consists of a fresh issue of shares worth Rs 358 crore and offers for sale by existing shareholders such International Finance Corp, Elevar, Sarva Capital and the investors who will be exiting fully. The offer for sale is worth Rs 292 crore.

Ujjivan aims to start the new journey in January. Ghosh said the bank would like to have about 260 branches by the three months of its new avatar. "We are going to start with a large number of branches like what Bandhan did. This will be risky. We will open branches in a phased manner," Ghosh said in Kolkata in an event to announce the IPO.