Standard Chartered has confirmed that it will proceed with an earlier announced sale of Indian depositary receipts and listing in India, making it the first foreign firm to be publicly traded on India's two major exchanges, media reports said.

The UK-based bank, which earns the lion’s share of its revenues from Asia, the Middle-East and Africa, said it will sell 240 million IDRs in an offering that will run from 25 May to 28 May. Each ten IDRs will represent one common share, meaning the Indian offering will account for about 1.2 per cent of its overall share capital.

Standard Chartered didn't comment on the size of the offering yesterday, but has earlier said that it wants to sell enough IDRs to ensure the instrument will be liquid -- the bank's own assumption is that this will require an issue of at least $500 million.

The bank has earlier stated that the Indian listing underscores how important the country is to its business development plans.