India's Equitas Holdings Ltd. said its subsidiary Equitas Small Finance Bank Ltd. will take necessary steps to list its shares through an IPO after the country's securities regulator rejected its listing proposal, according to a Sept. 13 filing.
The IPO is expected to be completed by March 2020 under normal circumstances.
The Securities Exchange Board of India rejected the company's proposed draft scheme, saying the scheme is not in compliance with its rules. Under the scheme, the small finance bank proposed to capitalize its free reserves and issue shares to shareholders of Equitas Holdings without cash consideration.
Equitas Small Finance Bank was required to list its shares on or before Sept. 4 and to have a net worth of 5 billion rupees under the Reserve Bank of India's rules. Since the small finance bank failed to meet the deadline for listing, the central bank recently prohibited it from opening new branches and froze the remuneration of its CEO and managing director.
As of Sept. 13, US$1 was equivalent to 70.97 Indian rupees.
