As part of the consolidation process within the SBI Group, its five associate banks including State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ) will soon submit to the Reserve Bank the scheme of acquisition as ratified by shareholders.

The board of the directors has considered the report of the expert committee set up to look into the written objections from shareholders in terms of the Grievance Redressal Mechanism set up as part of the scheme of acquisition, SBBJ said in a regulatory filing on stock exchanges on Monday. The board approved the August 18 scheme of acquisition without any modification, it said. It further said that scheme of Acquisition of SBBJ along with the Report of the Expert Committee will be submitted to the RBI for their consideration and approval.

Upon approval, RBI shall submit the scheme of acquisition as approved by it to the government of India for approval and issue of order of Acquisition under Section 35 of the SBI Act 1955.

Another associate, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Travancore also made similar announcements. The government earlier this year cleared the proposal to merge SBI with its five associate banks – SBBJ, State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Hyderabad – and the new Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB).

In August, SBI had said that all its associate banks and BMB will be merged into it that will add an additional Rs 8 lakh crore to its assets making it a banking behemoth with total assets of Rs 30 lakh crore, an increase of about 36 percent.

There were three valid grievances each for SBT, SBBJ and SBM, which were taken by the expert committee. The committee found the swap ratios to be correct and so rejected all the grievances. The boards of these three listed banks at a meeting held today (Monday) viewed the expert committee recommendations and reconfirmed the swap ratio.

In the filing, SBBJ, SBT and SBM said: “The boards have considered the report of the expert committee set up to consider the written objections from shareholders in terms of the grievance redressal mechanism set up as part of the merger scheme which was approved by the boards on August 18, and have approved the scheme without any modifications thereto.”

On August 18, the SBI board had announced the share swap ratio for three of the listed associate banks and Bhartiya Mahila Bank. As per the merger proposal, SBBJ shareholders will get 28 shares of SBI (Rs 1 each) for every 10 shares (Rs 10 each). Similarly, SBM and SBT shareholders will get 22 shares of SBI for every 10 shares. In case of Bharatiya Mahila Bank, 4,42,31,510 shares of SBI will be swapped for every 100 crore of Rs 10 each.

SBI appointed an expert committee for grievance redressals of minority shareholders with regard to the share swap ratios. The panel was given 21 days to register their complaints. The grievance redressals committee was headed by a High Court judge and two chartered accountants. The proposal will now be sent to the SBI board in 2-3 days which will take the final view, Vyas said.

Once the board takes a view, the bank will have to send the proposal to the Reserve Bank and then to the government for final approval. In an interview earlier this month, chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya had told PTI that the merger process would begin by end-October and would be completed by March 2017.

“The merger process will start by October-end... after the grievance committee report, we will send it to the Reserve Bank and then to the government, which may probably take a month. After this the merger can happen,” Bhattacharya had said, adding intention is to complete the merger by March 2017.

With the merger of all 5 associates and BMBL, SBI will become a global-sized bank. The combined entity will have 22,500 branches and 58,000 ATMs serving over 50 crore customers. SBI has now close to 16,500 branches, including 191 foreign offices spread across 36 countries. SBI first merged State Bank of Saurashtra with itself in 2008. Two years later, State Bank of Indore was merged. #casansaar (PTI)