The Centre has approved capital infusion of Rs 7,900 crore (including premium) into State Bank of India by way of preferential allotment of shares.

This was conveyed to SBI through a Finance Ministry letter dated January 30, the country's largest commercial bank informed the Mumbai stock exchange on Monday.

With this, the Centre's stake in SBI would go up to 65 per cent. Currently, the Centre has 59.4 per cent stake in the bank . The capital infusion would also help raise the Tier-I capital of the bank to 8 per cent.

The SBI Chairman, Mr Pratip Chaudhuri, had earlier this month said that the Government was looking to make a capital infusion of Rs 6,000-8,000 crore by end-March.

>krsrivats@thehindu.co.in

comment COMMENT NOW