Nabil Bank to acquire Nepal Bangladesh Bank

 Nabil Bank has signed an agreement today to acquire Nepal Bangladesh Bank (NB Bank).

The merger committee’s coordinator from Nabil Bank Udaya Krishna Upadhyay and the coordinator from NB Bank Indra Bahadur Thapa signed the preliminary memorandum of understanding (MoU) for acquisition in a share swap ratio of 100:43.

After the acquisition, NB Bank’s business transactions will be in the name of Nabil Bank, but the chief executive officer and chair of the merged entity's board has not been decided yet.

According to a press note issued by the Nabil Bank, the merged entity will have a core capital of Rs 43 billion, paid-up capital of Rs 22.5 billion, loans of Rs 300 billion, deposits of Rs 314 billion with 235 branches and over 1.6 million customers.

The agreement came a day after the Kathmandu District Court issued a stay order barring NB Bank from selling the promoter shares of its foreign partner IFIC Bank Ltd Bangladesh to Chaudhary Group of Nepal. A single bench of Justice Ram Chandra Poudel of the Kathmandu District Court had issued the order against the NB Bank’s plan to sell the share to Nabil Bank, whose majority shares are owned by Chaudhary Group (CG).

Earlier, the Chairman of Sunrise Bank Motilal Dugad had filed a writ at the Kathmandu District Court, and also Patan High Court, stating that the IFIC Bank had breached the agreement made with him promising to sell the promoter shares.

Last July, NB Bank announced an exit of IFIC Bank that owned 40.09 per cent shares of the bank. Binod Chaudhary led Chaudhary Group then made its way to purchase 36,827,426 unit shares of the foreign partner of the NBB. But the Dugad claimed that he has already strike the deal.