UCO Bank board meeting March 19 on fund raising

The UCO Bank board will meet March 19 to decide on raising funds through either a qualified institutional placement (QIP) or a follow-on public offer (FPO), a top bank official said here Tuesday.

‘We may go for either FPO or a QIP. The board will take a call on which route to take at its meeting scheduled for Mar 19,’ chairman-cum-managing director S.K. Goel told IANS.

Goel said before the board meeting, he would meet a select group of the bank’s shareholders to elicit their views on the fund raising options.

If the board decides on the QIP route, the government’s approval would be sought, he said.

Meanwhile, a shareholders meeting was held Tuesday to get approval for a FPO of 60 million shares through the book building process that the government had given the nod for on Jan 19.

The bank expects a fund infusion of about Rs.750 crore by the government ‘any time soon’ in the form of perpetual non-culmulative preference shares, Goel said.