KATHMANDU: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), central bank of Nepal, has given a letter of intent to the merger between Nepal Investment Bank (NIB) and Himalayan Bank (HBL). The meeting of the board of the NRB held this Monday decided on the matter.
The Nepal Stock Exchange has already halted the trading of shares of both banks since the companies signed a merger agreement with each other. The new bank would be the largest bank in the country in terms of paid-up capital.
With the intention of strengthening the banking sector of Nepal and in line with Nepal Rastra Banks (NRB) encouragement through their Merger and Acquisition policy Nepal Investment Bank and Himalayan Bank have jointly signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to go into a merger.
The signing of the MoU was done by the Chairman of Nepal Investment Bank Prithvi Bahadur Pande alongside the Chairman of Himalayan Bank Tulsi Prasad Gautam. This development has officially paved the way to complete formalities before the process of the start of joint operations between the two commercial banks.
At present, the paid-up capital of Nepal Investment Bank stands at 16.26 billion whereas Himalayan Bank’s paid-up capital amounts to 10.68 billion. After the merger, the combined paid-up capital of the banks will reach a staggering 26.14 billion making it the bank with the highest paid-up capital in the country.
The last traded price as of 13th May 2021, of NIB, stood at Rs 460 and of HBL at Rs 484 per share.
