Syndicate Bank, one of the major public sector banks in India, said Friday it had received the approval of capital market watchdog Securities and Exchange Board of India to float a second public offering next month.

Syndicate Bank proposes to issue 50 million equity shares of Rs.10 each at a premium to be decided through the book building process in the first week of July, said a statement issued here.

The issue is to be made through a 100 percent book-built process. Of the total offer size, the bank has reserved five million equity shares for its employees, the statement said.

Of the balance net offer, 22.5 million equity shares have been reserved for allotment to qualified institutional buyers on a discretionary basis and 6.75 million shares are for allotment to non-institutional buyers.

The balance 15.75 million would be allotted to retail investors on a proportionate basis.

"The issue is being made to augment the capital requirements in keeping with Basel II norms as also meet our future growth objectives," said N. Kantha Kumar, chairman and managing director of Syndicate Bank.

Syndicate Bank caters to over 16 million customers across India through its 1,798 branches. As on March 31, 2005, its total business was over Rs.730 billion.

The book running lead managers for the issue are SBI Capital Markets, Enam Financial Consultants, JM Morgan Stanley and SSKI Corporate Finance Private Limited.