StanChart aims India listing by end of March

Lender plans raising $750mln as it nears to become first foreign company to list in India.

Standard Chartered may file a preliminary prospectus for its proposed India listing by the end of March, subject to market conditions, said the Indian unit's chief executive, slating the lender as the first to take advantage of the country's relaxed rules to issue Indian Depository Receipts.

"We cannot file the preliminary prospectus till we have announced the results....earliest, we can start the process by March-end," Neeraj Swaroop said at a press briefing Wednesday to announce the 2009 results for the local unit of the Asia-focused bank.

He said the London-based bank plans to raise between $500 million and $750 million through an Indian Depository Receipts issue, which he expects to list in the second quarter of 2010.

Swaroop said also that the bank has hired Goldman Sachs, UBS, JM Financial Consultants, DSP Merrill Lynch, Kotak Mahindra Capital Co. and SBI Capital Markets as the arrangers for the issue.

He said he doesn't expect any regulatory clearance to be a "show stopper" and awaits the central bank's procedural approval for the listing.

Clearance by the Reserve Bank of India and market regulator Securities & Exchange Board of India will take the bank a step closer to becoming the first foreign company to list in the country.

View the full article in the Wall Street Journal.