Axis Bank Ltd has picked JPMorgan Chase & Co and Citigroup Inc for a

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share sale to raise up to $1 billion, three sources with direct knowledge of the deal said on Wednesday.

Axis Bank's share offering to institutional investors is likely to be launched in two to three weeks depending on market conditions, two of the sources said, declining to be named as the details of the deal are not public yet.

Proceeds from the offering will be used to boost the bank's balance sheet, the sources said, adding Axis Bank's investment banking unit, Axis Capital, is also one of the advisors on the deal.

Axis Bank passed an enabling resolution to raise $1 billion through equity in December. The bank will take a decision on fund raising in "due course of time," its executive director Somnath Sengupta told reporters on a conference call after its earnings report on Tuesday, without giving details.

Sengupta could not immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday.