The State Bank of India (SBI) is looking to raise about Rs 6000 crore by selling a part of its stake in its credit card joint venture, reported The Economic Times, citing two people familiar with the development.

SBI Cards Payment and Services Pvt Ltd or SBI Cards has already started talks with merchant bankers for the proposed initial public offering (IPO) which is pegged at about Rs 8,000 crore, said one of the sources, as mentioned in the report.

SBI Cards is a 74:26 joint venture between SBI and Carlyle, a global private equity firm.

“This is going to be primarily a secondary sale of shares from the existing investors — SBI and Carlyle Group,” another source was quoted as saying in the report, adding "SBI Cards is expected to raise about Rs 500-1,000 crore."

SBI Cards claims that it is the second-largest credit card issuer in the country having a customer base of about 90 lakh, the report said.

According to the report, the size of the issue will depend on the extent to which Carlyle participates in the proposed IPO. SBI’s stake is likely to drop to about 60 percent, the report added, citing one of the sources.

If the plan goes ahead, it will become the first pureplay credit card company to be listed in the country, said the report.

When contacted by the paper, both, SBI and SBI Cards didn’t respond to its queries while Carlyle Group couldn’t be reached, the report added.