Merger plan: SBI, 3 associates inform Cabinet nod to exchanges

State Bank of India (SBI) and three of its listed subsidiaries today informed the exchanges the Cabinet approval on the planned merger of associates with the parent bank.

"We advise that the finance minister, in a press briefing (yesterday), announced that that Cabinet has approved the proposal for merger of State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ), State Bank of Mysore (SBM), State Bank of Travancore (SBT), State Bank of Patiala (SBP) and State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH) with State Bank of India," SBI said in a regulatory filing.

Yesterday in a post Cabinet meet briefing, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced the final approval of the government to the merger proposal of SBI's five subsidiaries with the parent entity.

Of the five associate banks, three are listed and the remaining two unlisted. The listed entities are SBM, SBT and SBBJ.

In their respective separate filings, these three listed entities communicated the same to the bourses.

With the merger of all the five associates, SBI is expected to become a global-sized bank with an asset base of Rs 37 trillion (Rs 37 lakh crore) or over $555 billion, 22,500 branches and 58,000 ATMs. It will have over 50 crore customers.

It has nearly 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 with it.

The stock of SBI closed 0.65 % up at Rs 270.40 on BSE, SBT 4.66 % at Rs 587.80, State Bank of Mysore 4.66 % at Rs 587.80 and SBBJ 3.48 % at Rs 743.