State Bank of India considers raising $4.3bln

SBI plans procuring funds through equity within 2 years to reach capital requirement target.

SBI chairman and managing director OP Bhatt said that more than half of the amount would be sourced from internal accruals, while the rest would be secured from the market.

Talking about the bank's capital requirement over the next five years, he said the bank will require around Rs 50,000 crore ($10.84 billion).

"Capital raising depends on many factors. Firstly, the state of the market and then need for budgetary provision if the government decides to issue capital to us," Bhatt said in a report in Financial Express.

SBI is currently sitting on excess liquidity to the tune of Rs 75,000 crore ($16.26 billion) as of 31 December 2009. “This is exerting pressure on margins and this pressure would be there for the next two quarters," Bhatt said.