Swiss firm wins 50pc stake in Oriental Bank
Switzerland-based ICB Global Finance Group Holdings AG has won the bidding for purchasing majority shares of the problem-ridden Oriental Bank at Tk 350.77 crore, a senior Bangladesh Bank official said yesterday.
The other bidder Domestic Investment Consortium offered Tk 251 crore for 50.1 percent stake in the private bank.
A five-member committee headed by Bangladesh Bank (BB) deputy governor Murshid Kuli Khan for evaluating the tender proposals opened the financial offers yesterday and found that the Switzerland-based consortium has offered the highest.
"The BB will formally announce the winning bidder's name on February 14 and place the documents before the higher authority," Khan told reporters at the central bank yesterday.
If the proposal of ICB Global Finance Group Holdings-AG is okayed, the BB would sign a sale and purchase agreement with the would-be purchaser on February 28, officials said.
Individuals and the government own the remaining 49.9 percent shares of Oriental Bank.
The BB in an advertisement on August 2 last year invited expressions of interest (EoI) for selling the problem-ridden bank to which six bidders responded. Of those, the above two submitted technical and financial proposals.
The central bank took over the administration of Oriental Bank on June 19, 2006 following mismanagement and rampant corruption by some of the bank's directors.
The Switzerland-based ICB Financial Group Holdings AG operates in 10 countries worldwide.
From the initial issuance of a licence to operate a bank in Hungary in 1994, the ICB Banking Group within the last 12 years has established or acquired commercial banks in Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia.
The Group made its foray into Asia in 2003 by acquiring an indirect stake of 11.3 percent in Bank Internasional Indonesia, one of the largest banks in Indonesia. It also acquired a controlling interest in Bank Bumiputera, a mid-size bank from the same country, expanding its frontiers in the banking industry.
To date, the banks operating under the ICB Banking Group are expanding and consolidating their presence in the countries where financial services represent a significant pillar of the economy and constitute the fastest growing sector in the country.
In 2004, the individual ownerships of the ICB Banking Group were corporatised under the umbrella of ICB Financial Group Holdings AG.
On 17th May 2007, ICB Financial Group Holdings AG was listed on AIM market of the London Stock Exchange.
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