By IANS
Mumbai : The HDFC Bank announced that its board of directors will meet Saturday to consider a possible merger with the Centurion Bank of Punjab (CBoP).
This has been said in an official communiqué issued to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Friday evening by the HDFC Bank.
According to banking circles, the merger talks between the two entities have been doing the market buzz for the past six months. Unofficial estimates peg the value of CBoP’s assets in the range of Rs.1,200 billion ($30 billion).
Once merged, the proposed new entity will rank below the ICICI Bank but above the Axis Bank, formerly known as the UTI Bank.
The merger is likely to be worked out on the share-swap deal on CBoP’s current price of Rs.57 per share. HDFC Bank’s share price closed today at Rs.1474.95, down by 4.40 per cent.
Frantic activity has been witnessed following a marathon meeting last Wednesday between HDFC Bank’s Aditya Puri and CBoP chairman Rana Talwar along with chief executive Shailendra Bhandari.
The meeting gave rise to hectic media speculation, which boosted the CBoP’s price by seven percent early Friday morning, but declined later during the intra-day fluctuations.