Bajaj Housing Finance board approves plan to raise Rs 4,000 crore via IPO

Bajaj Finance's housing finance subsidiary will raise Rs 4,000 crore through an initial public offer (IPO) to comply with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regulations, the company said in a stock exchange filing.

"Board of directors of the company at its meeting on June 6, 2024, has approved an IPO of equity shares... which comprises of fresh issue aggregating up to Rs 4,000 crore and an offer for sale (‘OFS’) of equity shares subject to market conditions, receipt of applicable approvals, regulatory clearances and other considerations," the company said in a notice to the stock exchanges.

Bajaj Housing Finance, currently a subsidiary of Bajaj Finance, is among 15 NBFC and housing finance companies (HFCs) classified in the so-called upper layer of the RBI, according to a list that was released on September 30, 2022. This list was based on the RBI's scale-based regulations (SBR) detailed in October 2021.

These so called upper-layer NBFCs, or those entities with Rs 50,000 crore of assets under management, are required to be listed on stock exchanges by September 2025 according to RBI norms.

Eight of the 15 NBFCs are listed, including Bajaj Housing's parent Bajaj Finance.

Some NBFCs like Tata Capital Financial Services and L&T Finance have merged with their listed parents to avoid listing a second company.

HDFC Bank-promoted HDB Financial Services is also preparing to list on the exchanges to comply with RBI norms, ET reported in March.