State Bank of India on Tuesday said it may merge one of the five associate banks in the current fiscal.
“Right now we are in a position to merge one of the subsidiaries.... We may merge one associate bank this year,” SBI Chairman Pratip Chaudhuri told PTI in New Delhi.
Asked if the bank has identified the suitable candidate, he said a decision in this respect is not yet taken.
SBI first merged its associate State Bank of Saurashtra with itself in 2008. Two years later in 2010, State Bank of Indore was merged with SBI.
The country’s largest lender has five associate banks — State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Mysore and State Bank of Hyderabad.
Among these, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Mysore and State Bank of Travancore are listed entities.
Asked about capital requirement, he said the bank has requested fund infusion to the tune of Rs. 4,000 crore.
“We are expecting about Rs. 4,000 crore fund infusion in the current fiscal,” he said.
Last fiscal, the bank got Rs. 3,004 crore fund support from the government.
SBI raised the money through a preferential allotment of shares to the government, through which the state holding in the bank increased to 62.3 per cent from the earlier 61.6 per cent.
The government has already announced that the public sector banks will get Rs. 14,000 crore additional capital from government during the current fiscal.
In the Budget speech, Chidambaram had said, “Before the end of March 2013, we should provide Rs. 12,517 crore to infuse additional capital into 13 public sector banks. In 2013-14, I propose to provide a further amount of Rs. 14,000 crore for capital infusion.”
“We should ensure that public sector banks always meet Basel III regulations as they come into force in a phased manner,” he had said.
The government had infused about Rs. 20,117 crore in public sector banks during 2010—11, and Rs 12,000 crore in 2011-12.
