The Hindu Business Line : Canara, Dena banks may take consolidation forward

NEW DELHI: The government may facilitate merger of Dena Bank with Canara Bank, which would create an entity with expected business of around Rs 5 lakh crore in the current fiscal.

Two days after finance ministry officials met heads of five PSU banks over the issue of consolidation, Dena Bank chairman and managing director Mr D L Rawal met the financial services additional secretary Mr G C Chaturvedi on Friday.

The two are learnt to have discussed consolidation among other issues, sources said.

On November 18, chief of five leading banks Punjab Nation Bank, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank, Oriental bank of Commerce and Union Bank of India had met Mr Chaturvedi to explore the possibilities of creating few large PSU lenders through mergers and acquis itions.

According to Canara Bank chairman and managing director, Mr A C Mahajan, “We are looking at geographical synergy so that where we are not present we should have an inorganic growth.”

The bank is deficient in the western region basically in states of Maharashtra and Gujarat, he had said.

“We would start due diligence process soon,” he had said, adding it would be done by internal team first.

Bangalore-based Canara Bank, which has a network 2,960 branches, is strong in the southern India, while Mumbai-based Dena Bank with its about 1,100 branches has a large presence in Maharashtra, Gujarat and in Chhattisgarh. – PTI

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