Yes Bank launches $1 billion share sale to bolster capital

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Yes Bank Ltd has launched a share sale worth up to $1 billion, according to a regulatory filing on Wednesday, as the country's fifth-biggest private sector lender by assets aims to boost its capital base.

Yes Bank is selling 66 billion rupees worth of shares, or about $1 billion, to institutional investors at 1,350-1,410 rupees apiece, IFR, a Thomson Reuters publication, reported, citing two bankers privy to the transaction.

Ahead of the announcement, the bank's shares closed down 2.7 percent at 1,401.55 rupees. The price of the offering ranges from a premium of 0.6 percent to a discount of 3.7 percent to Wednesday's close.

Yes Bank and some of its private sector competitors are increasing their loan books at double the pace of state-run rivals, which have been burdened by a surge in bad loans.

Yes Bank had previously said it planned to raise $1 billion through a domestic or overseas share sale.

The bank last raised $500 million by selling shares to institutional investors in May 2014.

Goldman Sachs and Motilal Oswal are the global coordinators and bookrunners alongside HSBC, JM Financial, Nomura, Religare, SBI Capital and Yes Securities, according to IFR.

($1 = 66.3738 rupees)

(Reporting by S. Anuradha and Devidutta Tripathy; additional reporting by Sankalp Phartiyal; editing by David Clarke)