(17 June 2013 – India) India’s largest bank is to merge with one of its subsidiaries by the end of the year.
State Bank of India (SBI) chairman Pratip Chaudhuri said the bank is likely to merge at least one of its associate banks with itself by the end of this year.
SBI is evaluating which subsidiary would be the right candidate for the first merger.
Chaudhuri said the only thing that held it back in the past is that the merger cost is about US$17.2 million (A$17.9 million) to US$51.7 million.
Now that the bank’s capital is close to US$1.7 billion, SBI can easily consider the merger.
It intends to determine this either in July or August and on the basis of this report, the merger procedure could start somewhere in September.
The merger will help SBI increase its network as each bank can bring in 700 to 1000 locations.