AU Small Finance Bank jumps 4% after Singapore govt buys stake in lender

MUMBAI: Shares of AU Small Finance Bank rose 4.3% on Tuesday following the government of Singapore buying stake in the lender.

The Singapore government bought 1.9 million shares of the lender, or 0.65% stake, at ₹414.6 apiece, according to bulk deal data on the NSE.

At 1210 pm, AU Small Finance Bank traded 0.6% higher at ₹400.15, while the benchmark Sensex was up 1.8% at 30582.61 points.

Last week, Sunil Bharti Mittal-owned Bharti (SBM) Holdings Pvt. Ltd had picked up 2.4 million shares of the lender. According to data available on BSE, Bharti SBM had bought 2.4 million shares or 0.79% of its equity at ₹414.16 apiece, with the transaction valued at ₹99.90 crore.

AU Small Finance Bank reported a 3.4% increase in its net profit for the March ended quarter to ₹122.32 crore from ₹118.23 crore in the year-ago period. Total income grew 35.7% to ₹1,366.60 crore in the fourth quarter last fiscal from ₹1007.44 crore in the corresponding period in 2018-19.

Its net interest income surged 43% to ₹555 crore.

AU Small Finance Bank has seen its revenue rise every quarter for the past four quarters, while FII/FPI or institutions have raised their shareholding in the company.

In December, Temasek’s wholly-owned subsidiary Camas Investments Pte. Ltd, invested ₹525 crore towards conversion of its 10.10 million warrants increasing its stake to 4.8% from 1.48% earlier. In June 2018, Temasek had committed to invest ₹1,000 crore ($141 million) in the lender, with 30% equity capital and remaining 70% by way of convertible warrants issued at a price of ₹692.77 per share.