Ahead of the crucial meeting of the ICICI Bank board to approve the takeover of Bank of Rajasthan (BoR) on Sunday, Industry Ministry sources have said the former would need government clearance for the deal.
“It is obvious that they (ICICI Bank) will have to take the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval as they are foreign-owned bank,” official sources in the Industry and Commerce Ministry said.
The sources further said besides the FIPB, which approves foreign investment, ICICI Bank would have to obtain regulatory clearances from the Reserve Bank of India and the Securities and Exchange Board.
Following the new foreign investment guidelines issues through Press Note 3 in February 2009, ICICI Bank has become a foreign-owned, Indian-controlled bank as the overseas equity in the bank is over 65 per cent. The Bank had earlier indicated a swap ratio of 25:118.