Mumbai, March 3: Standard Chartered Bank will be the first foreign bank to list its shares in India.

The bank, which raked in pre-tax profits of over $1 billion from its Indian operations last year, today unveiled plans to raise between $500 million and $700 million through an Indian depository rights (IDR) issue — the first time that this capital-raising instrument will be used. StanChart’s headoffice is in London.

The announcement was made at separate press conferences in Mumbai, Hong Kong and London soon after Standard Chartered Plc declared its global results for 2009.

“The target is to come out with the IDR flotation in the second quarter of this year depending on market conditions,” Neeraj Swaroop, StanChart’s regional CEO for India and South Asia, said in Mumbai. He said most of the issues pertaining to the flotation had been sorted out. The key regulatory clearances are in place; some procedural approvals are still required. “I believe these clearances are procedural in nature and will not be a problem.”

Standard Chartered has appointed Goldman Sachs, SBI Caps, DSP Merrill Lynch, Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, UBS, JM Financial and Standard Chartered STCI Capital Markets to manage the issue.

Swaroop said the bank would not file the share sale document with market regulator Sebi until it announced its results for the year ended March 31. The bank follows an April-March accounting year for its Indian operations.

Sebi permitted IDR flotations in 2004, but no one has bitten the bait till now. The IDR is akin to the global depositary receipts and are designed to help foreign companies to raise money in India.

The foreign entities are allowed to issue the depository receipts to investors who have the option to exchange them for underlying shares after a certain period of time.

Sebi has been taking steps to increase the attractiveness of IDRs. Last year, it allowed retail investors to subscribe to a maximum of 30 per cent of an IDR issue. It also permitted the concept of anchor investors as seen in IPOs.

The Standard Chartered issue is likely to hit the market just when the government plans to kickstart its Rs 40,000-crore divestment programme.

The bank’s announcement of the IDR float came on a day when India was one of the star performers in the bank’s global operations for the year ended December 31.

India’s profit before tax crossed the $1-billion mark to $1.06 billion compared with $891 million in 2008. While India’s share in Standard Chartered group profits has increased to 20.5 per cent, the country is the second after Hong Kong to have profits before tax of over $1 billion.

“There is a race for which will be our biggest market by profits this year,” CEO Peter Sands said in London. “We have built a superb franchise in India and this year it is our intention to open a new chapter in our long history there.”

Total income for India during 2009 stood at $1.81 billion against $1.69 billion in the preceding year.

Swaroop said the current and savings accounts at the bank rose 25 per cent to $4.8 billion. It now constitutes 43 per cent of the bank’s total deposits. On the other hand, loans and advances rose 15 per cent to $9 billion.

In its business segments, wholesale banking led the charge by posting a total income of $1.36 billion ($1.06 billion) and an operating profit of $1 billion ($674 million).

However, consumer banking flagged as the total income came down to $444 million ($484 million) and operating profit was lower at $54 million ($71 million).

India’s importance in the bank’s future plans was recognised when its CEO for Asian operations, Jaspal Bindra, joined the global board on January 1.