Kerala-headquartered ESAF Small Finance Bank has fixed the price band for its initial public offering (IPO) at Rs 57-60 per share. 

The IPO, which opens on 3 November, will raise Rs 463 crore at the upper price band. The offer for the public will close on 7 November.

The anchor book of the public issue will be opened for a day on 2 November.

The offer consists of fresh issuance of shares worth Rs 390.7 crore and an offer-for-sale (OFS) of Rs 72.3 crore by the selling shareholders.

Promoter ESAF Financial Holdings will sell shares worth Rs 49.26 crore. In the OFS, the other investors to participate include PNB Metlife India Insurance Company (to sell Rs 12.67 crore worth of shares) and Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company (Rs 10.37 crore worth of shares). The holdings of these three will reduce by Rs 72.3 crore.

The issue includes a reservation of Rs 12.5 crore worth of shares for the bank's employees. They will get those shares at a discount of Rs 5 each on the final issue price.

ESAF will be the sixth small finance bank which will be available for trading on the bourses after listing. Equitas Small Finance Bank, AU Small Finance Bank, Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, Suryoday Small Finance Bank and Utkarsh Small Finance Bank are the other five which are listed entities on the bourses.

As of June-end, ESAF Small Finance Bank managed assets worth Rs 17,204 crore, with three-fourths of this coming from its microfinance operations. In fiscal years 2022 and 2023, the bank wrote off Rs 465 crore of bad loans, reducing its gross and net non-performing assets (NPA) to 1.65% and 0.81%, respectively as of March-end 2022.

The bank’s deposits stood at Rs 1,656 crore, with net interest margin at 9.7%.