Allahabad Bank Files Draft Red Herring Prospectus with SEBI

Allahabad Bank, one of the largest commercial banks in India and ranked eight largest in terms of assets, today filed a draft Red Herring Prospectus with the Securities & Exchanges Board of India to enter the Capital market with the second public issue of equity shares.

    Allahabad Bank proposes to issue 100 million equity shares of Rs.10/- each for cash at a premium to be decided through book building process. The issue is to be made through a 100% book-built process.

    Of the total offer, the bank has reserved 10 million equity shares to be offered to its employees and another 10 million equity shares to be offered to existing retail shareholders.

Of the balance net offer of 80 million shares, 40 million equity shares are reserved for allotment to qualified institutional buyers on a discretionary basis and 20 million shares are reserved for allotment to non- institutional buyers. The balance 20 million would be allotted to retail investors on a proportionate basis.

Allahabad Bank, amongst the oldest banks in India, today caters to over 15 million customers across India through its network of 1938 branches. The bank has grown rapidly in recent years. As on December,2004, its total business was Rs.589281.2 million. In the first nine months of fiscal 2005, total income was Rs.28.56 billion and net profit was Rs.4.62 billion.

Between fiscal 2002 and 2004, the Bank's total income grew at a compound annual rate of 13.4 %, while unadjusted and adjusted net profit grew at a compound annual rate of 140.4% and 145.95%, respectively. Total deposits and total advances during the same period grew at a compound annual growth rate of 17.8% and 20.4%, respectively.

The book running lead managers for the issue are SBI Capital Markets, DSP Merill Lynch Pvt. Ltd, ICICI Securities Ltd, J M Morgan Stanley Pvt. Ltd and Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Ltd.