New Delhi, November 20
Kotak Mahindra Bank today decided to acquire mid-sized lender ING Vysya Bank in an all-share transaction to strengthen its position ahead of entry of new players.

The Uday Kotak-run bank said the consolidation was founded on leveraging “significant complementaries that exist between the two banks.”

The merger would be done through a share swap in which 725 equity shares of Rs 5 each of Kotak Mahindra will be issued for every 1,000 shares of Rs 10 each held in ING Vysya Bank.

“Post amalgamation, shareholders of ING Vysya Bank will receive shares of Kotak Mahindra Bank in the aforementioned ratio, resulting in change in shareholding of the Kotak Mahindra Bank,” a statement from Kotak Mahindra Bank said.

The transaction would be subject to approval of shareholders of both the banks and statutory approval from RBI and the Competition Commission of India, it said.

Netherlands-based ING holds 42.73% stake in ING Vysya Bank through two investment vehicles routed through Mauritius.

ING Vysya Bank shares closed 7.15% higher at Rs 814.20 on the BSE ahead of the announcement which came after trading hours.

Kotak Mahindra Bank too jumped by 7.28% to close at Rs 1,157.05 per unit at the BSE.

The statement further said: “This revenue synergy led and growth-oriented amalgamation, adopting the best practices of the banking, governance and prudence from both banks is expected to result in a superior platform benefiting from efficiencies of size and scope over time for all shareholders, customers and employees.”

“I am excited to announce the merger of Kotak Mahindra Bank and ING Vysya Bank, subject to approvals. We will work to create stakeholder value,” Kotak Mahindra Bank managing director and vice-chairman Uday Kotak tweeted.

“We hope to get regulatory approvals for acquisition of ING Vysya Bank by April 1,” said Uday Kotak.

Kotak Mahindra Bank was founded in 2004. It has 605 branches and 1,103 ATMs across the country. Bangalore-based ING Vysya Bank has about 677 branches.

Following the acquisition, Kotak Bank’s number of branches would more than double. This is Kotak Mahindra Bank’s first ever acquisition of any bank.

The last merger in the banking space took place in 2010 when ICICI Bank amalgamated Bank of Rajasthan. — PTI

New Delhi, November 20
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today asked the CEOs of public sector banks to work in a professional manner without fear or favour and take objective steps to curb the rising non-perorming assets (NPAs).

In a review meeting with heads of banks and financial institutions, the Finance Minister gave a clear message that banks should carry out lending on the basis of objective due diligence without being unduly conservative, in a completely transparent manner without fear or favour. This would boost the economy and enable an asset book of high quality.

Hasmukh Adhia, Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, assured the bankers that there will be no interference in the day to day functioning of the banks. He asked the bankers to adopt objective mechanism and evolve a rational transfer and posting policy so that there is no grouse among the officers and staff in this regard. Jaitley said the Government has taken steps to streamline the process of appointment of CEOs and executive directors (EDs) of the Public Sector Banks (PSBs) to introduce objectivity in the process.

On the rising NPAs, Jaitley asked the bankers to take necessary corrective measures in order to bring down their NPAs. He asked them to analyse the reasons for the same and take necessary corrective measures accordingly.

He also asked the bankers to take steps to increase the credit flow to various sectors of the economy since credit is lifeline of an economy.

New Delhi, November 20
Multinational retailers Wal-Mart, Metro Cash & Carry and Carrefour, which are allowed to sell goods and merchandise only to wholesale customers in India, are blatantly violating rules and selling to individuals, an investigation by web portal Cobrapost.com has shown.

These foreign companies are not allowed to retail or sell their wares directly to the last consumer. However, in its investigation, Cobrapost has found them doing exactly so.

Besides flouting the government regulations on FDI in wholesale, these companies are violating their own terms and conditions that they have established for doing business. Investigation reveals the intent of the store officials to allow individuals to shop for their personal consumption in order to increase their bottom line.

The government allowed 100% FDI in wholesale trading under the condition that these companies would not do any further retailing, thus restricting their operations to B2B — or business-to-business — commerce only.

According to norms, only retailers registered with these companies are allowed to shop at these stores.

Chandigarh, November 20
Telecom service provider Vodafone is targeting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) for its growth in Punjab. The company hopes to grow with the fastest growing industrial sector.

With SMEs comprising 25% of the company’s total business subscriber base in Punjab telecom circle, the company hopes to grow by leaps and bounds in this segment. In order to rope in more SMEs in their fold, Vodafone is launching three new initiatives for medium businesses, having a turnover between Rs 100 crore and Rs 500 crore per annum.

Deepak Pande, executive vice-president, Vodafone Business Services, the enterprise vertical of Vodafone, said Punjab being an important market for Vodafone, they now have a good presence in 40 industrial estates here. “We have subscribers in almost 50,000 SMEs, and the new initiatives will help the company grow faster,” he said, adding the growth of the SME market is twice as fast as the enterprise segment with access to data anywhere.

Through the new initiatives, Vodafone plans to tell customers about the scalability of their infrastructure, by addressing their concerns regarding high cost of setting up operations, investment protection, minimum use of capex et al. He said they have also launched a solution known as Vodafone Location Tracker wherein an organisation can have real time information of all its sales teams and thus check their effectiveness.

Pande said apart from rolling out its infrastructure, VBS has also gone about fortifying its channel partner business. The company will also educate its customers about integrating telecom and IT for the small organisations across the country.

New Delhi, November 20
The Union Cabinet today gave its approval to launch "Integrated Power Development Scheme" (IPDS) which would help in strengthening of sub-transmission and distribution network in the urban areas.

The meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi also gave approval to the signing of "SAARC Framework Agreement for Energy Cooperation (Electricity)" among the SAARC Member States during the forthcoming summit scheduled to be held at Kathmandu, Nepal, on November 26 and 27.

The agreement will enable greater cooperation in the power sector among SAARC countries. The agreement is expected to improve the power availability in the entire SAARC region. It would facilitate integrated operation of the regional power grid.

IPDS would also help in metering of distribution transformers/feeders/consumers in the urban areas and IT enablement of distribution sector and strengthening of distribution network.

The same were approved by the CCEA in June last year for completion of targets laid down under Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (RAPDRP) for 12th and 13th Plans by carrying forward the approved outlay for RAPDRP to IPDS.

The scheme will help in reduction in AT&C losses, establishment of IT enabled energy accounting and auditing system, improvement in billed energy based on metered consumption and improvement in collection efficiency.

The estimated cost of the present scheme with the components of strengthening of sub-transmission and distribution networks, including metering of consumers in the urban areas is Rs 32,612 crore which includes the requirement of budgetary support from the Centre of Rs 25,354 crore over the entire implementation period.

New Delhi, November 20
Jignesh Shah, who is fighting legal cases in the NSEL's Rs 5,600-crore scam, has resigned as the managing director of Financial Technologies India, a company set up by him, and will become its chairman-emeritus.

The company appointed Prashant Desai as new managing director and CEO.

"Jignesh Shah will no longer hold any executive or managerial position in the company. ...Board invites Shah to be chairman-emeritus and mentor to nurture and inspire entrepreneurship," it said. — PTI

Karnal, November 20
The chief lead district manager of Prime Minister Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) Adarsh Baweja today urged account holders of the scheme to use debit card once in 45 days to get the accidental insurance benefits.

He said under the scheme, an accidental insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh will be extended to all account holders, who have RuPay debit card, an Indian card to counter the global cards such as Visa and MasterCard.