Tamilnad Mercantile Bank IPO Subscription Status: Day 3 Live Updates

Tamilnad Mercantile Bank, the101-year-old lender, has witnessed its fair share of regulatory woes over recent years.

The Securities Appellate Tribunal, on Friday, dismissed a plea that objected the bank’s decision to withdraw the offer for sale component from the IPO. Six of the lender’s shareholders—Robert and Ardis James Co., East River Holdings, Swiss Re Investors (Mauritius), Kamehameha Mauritius, Cuna Group (Mauritius), and FI Investments—had approached the SAT with the plea to injunct the IPO.

In June 2019, the central bank had withdrawn its consent, thus barring Tamilnad Mercantile Bank from opening new branches, froze the managing director and chief executive officer’s remuneration and restricted the lender’s entry into new lines of business after it failed to comply with certain regulations. It also stopped the bank from declaring and distributing dividends owing to the non-compliance.

But the regulator lifted most of the restrictions subject to listing the bank’s equity shares by Dec. 31, 2021, after a review in March 2021. The RBI said it would review its decision to restrict branch opening post the listing of shares.