New Delhi, May 20 (IANS) The SBI announced on Tuesday that its board has approved a plan to raise up to $3 billion in long-term funds during the financial year 2025-26.

The country’s largest public sector bank stated that the funds will be raised either in one or multiple tranches via public offerings or private placements of unsecured notes.

The Executive Committee of the Central Board, in its meeting held on Tuesday, has approved, inter alia, to examine the status and decide on long term fund raising in single/ multiple tranches of up to $3 billion under Reg-S/144A, through a public offer and/or private placement of senior unsecured notes in US dollar or any other major foreign currency during FY 2025-26, the SBI said in an exchange filing.

This move is part of the SBI’s strategy to raise funds at lower rates of interest to support credit growth across domestic and foreign operations.

The SBI earlier declared fundraising of up to Rs 25,000 crore in FY26 via qualified institution placement (QIP) or follow-on public offer (FPO).

The bank had posted a standalone net profit of Rs 18,642.59 crore in the fourth quarter of 2024-25. This represented a 10 per cent decline over the corresponding figure of Rs 20,698.35 crore in the same period of the previous year.

Its total income shot up to Rs 1,43,876 crore in the quarter from Rs 1,28,412 crore recorded in the same period a year ago.

The government-owned banks asset quality improved, with gross non-performing assets (NPAs) declining to 1.82 per cent of the total advances in the fourth quarter from 2.24 per cent as at March-end 2024. Similarly, net NPAs eased to 0.47 per cent as against 0.57 per cent.

The public sector bank’s net interest income (NII) stood at Rs 42,774 crore.

The SBI’s operating profit for FY25 crossed Rs 1 lakh crore and grew by 17.89 per cent year-on-year to Rs 1,10,579 crore, while operating profit for Q4FY25 grew by 8.83 per cent year-on-year to Rs 31,286 crore.

It declared a dividend of Rs 15.90 per share (1,590 per cent) for FY25. The record date of the dividend was fixed on May 16, and the payment date is May 30, 2025.

The SBI share price settled 1.2 per cent lower on the BSE, at Rs 785.35 apiece on Tuesday.

–IANS

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