Bandhan Bank open for inorganic opportunities, to evaluate new businesses
Kolkata, Oct 1 : Bandhan Bank on Monday said the lender is "open to explore inorganic opportunities" and "will evaluate" getting into new businesses such as insurance and mutual fund going forward under its holding company, which will help to dilute shareholding of the Non Operative Financial Holding Company (NOFHC) into the bank.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently withdrew general permission to open bank's new branches and froze the remuneration of the lender's MD and CEO Chandra Shekhar Ghosh till further notice as the bank was not able to bring down the shareholding of NOFHC, Bandhan Financial Holdings Limited (BFHL), to 40 per cent, as required under the licensing condition.
According to RBI's new banking licensing norms, any bank offering 'universal' services will have to bring down the promoter holding to 40 per cent in three years from the date of commencement of business.
The bank had completed three years of operations this August. The promoter holding in the bank currently stands at around 82 per cent after a successful Initial Public Offer (IPO), launched in March this year.
"As you are aware that we have come out with an IPO in March of 2018, whereby all existing shareholders, including BFHL are under lock-in for a period of one year till March 2019 as per SEBI regulations. So, till the time we are in lock-in, there cannot be any secondary sale by the promoter," the lender said in a regulatory filing on Monday, referring to a conference call held on Saturday.
"And post this lock-in the shares will be available to freely trade. NOFHC, which is the holding company of the bank, as per the licensing conditions, after the three years of starting of the business, can get into other financial services business other than banking like insurance and mutual fund. So that option is available to us now that three years is over, and we will evaluate getting into these new businesses going forward which will help us dilute our shareholding of NOFHC into the bank," said lender's CFO Sunil Samdani during the call.
Further, in line with its strategy to grow business, which is microfinance, MSME and affordable housing, the lender will continue to grow its business organically, he said.
"We are open, however, if it makes sense and is in line with our strategy of MSME, micro and affordable housing to explore inorganic opportunities as well. So, a combination of this will help us reduce our shareholding," Samdani said.
He said if it has to do any para-banking activities it "has to be housed under the NOFHC and not under the bank".
As of June 2018 we already have 937 branches and the lender was pursuing a strategy to take this to 1,000.
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NATO, others turn down US call for help in Hormuz: Trump
Washington (PTI): President Donald Trump on Tuesday said NATO and most of US' other allies have rejected his calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz as the war with Iran entered the third week.
In a social media post, Trump asserted that Iran’s military has been “decimated” and he no longer felt the need for assistance from NATO countries or anyone else.
Last week, Trump had sought help from European nations and others who depend on oil supplies transiting from the Hormuz Strait to safeguard the critical waterway.
“The United States has been informed by most of our NATO “Allies” that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East, this, despite the fact that almost every Country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot, in any way, shape, or form, be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon,” the US President said in a post on Truth Social.
Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported, have sparked increasing concerns of a global energy crisis and are unnerving the world economy.
“I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend Hundreds of Billions of Dollars per year protecting these same Countries, to be a one-way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need,” Trump said.
He said Australia, Japan and South Korea too have turned down his call for help.
“Fortunately, we have decimated Iran’s Military – Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti-Aircraft and Radar is gone and perhaps, most importantly, their Leaders, at virtually every level, are gone, never to threaten us, our Middle Eastern Allies, or the World, again,” Trump said.
He said that given the scale of recent military successes, the US no longer "need" or desires assistance from NATO countries, adding that it never relied on such support in the first place.
Speaking as President of the United States, the "most powerful" country in the world, "we do not need" help from anyone, Trump said.
The West Asia conflict began on February 28 when the US-Israeli combine conducted airstrikes on Iran.
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, has effectively been shut following the US and Israel attack on Iran and Tehran's sweeping retaliation.
However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said that from Tehran's "perspective", the strait is "open". "It is only closed to Iran's enemies, to those who carried out unjust aggression against our country and to their allies.”
Earlier in the day, a second Indian-flagged LPG tanker, Nanda Devi, reached the country after safely sailing from the war-hit Strait of Hormuz. On Monday, the first ship, Shivalik, reached Mundra port in Gujarat.
As of now, 22 Indian vessels remain on the west side and two on the east side of the strait.
Indian authorities are in constant touch with all the relevant stakeholders in the region to secure the safe passage of the remaining ships, officials said.
