Mumbai: Bank of Punjab yesterday said that it is issuing fresh equity shares to various investors including The Bank of Nova Scotia, Canada and Bharti Enterprises Pte Ltd at Rs38 per share.

In a notice to the stock exchanges, the bank said that its board has approved the issue of 2,42,85,176 (around 18.78 per cent stake on increased equity capital) equity shares to four investors at a price of Rs38 per share aggregating Rs92 crore.

Out of the 2.42 crore shares, the bank will issue 64.51 lakh equity shares constituting 4.99 per cent of the total post-issue paid-up share capital to The Bank of Nova Scotia, Canada.

A similar number of shares will be issued to Bharti Enterprises Pte Ltd and ICB Financial Group Holdings Ltd, Switzerland at the same price.

In addition, 38.78 lakh equity shares (three per cent) will be issued to Jyotsna Sharma, proprietor of B.N. Enterprises, and 10.52 lakh shares (0.814 per cent) to V N Koura.

"These are pure investors and not strategic investors. The exercise was being done for the past two - three months. We had given the mandate to Ernst & Young for capital raising," said C.R. Sharma, managing director, Bank of Punjab.

On buying 4.99 per cent stake in the bank, a Bharti official said: "This is a financial investment made by Bharti Enterprises as it had done in TV Today, and has nothing to do with Bharti Televentures."

The bank said that the issue and allotment would be subject to the approval of shareholders and all regulatory approvals.

It has fixed March 23 as for holding the EGM to seek shareholder approval.