Bhattacharya hopes to kick off SBI’s mega merger by Oct-end

SBI hopes to kick off merger of its associates as well as Bharatiya Mahila Bank with itself by October-end and try to complete the process by March next, making it the 45th largest lender globally in terms of assets. Early August, the central board of SBI had approved the acquisition of all the five associate banks and Bharatiya Mahila Bank and finalised the swap ratios for the merger. "The merger process will start by October-end. The grievance committee will come back to us hopefully by the end of this month, thereafter we have to send it to the Reserve Bank and then to the government for the final approval, which may probably take a month. Post which the merger can take place," SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya told in an interview on Sunday. SBI has three listed associate banks--State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur, State Bank of Mysore, State Bank of Travancore, and two unlisted associates--State Bank of Patiala and State Bank of Hyderabad. Under the swap ratio for the merger proposal, SBBJ shareholders will get 28 shares of SBI (Re 1 each) for every 10 shares (Rs 10 each) or a ratio of 1:28, while SBM and SBT shareholders will get 22 shares of 10 SBI shares. In the case of Bharatiya Mahila Bank, 4,42,31,510 shares of SBI will be swapped for every 100 crore of Rs 10. After the board approval, the lender had put in place a grievance redressal mechanism to provide an opportunity to its shareholders to file their objections with regard to the share swap ratios.