Centurion Bank of Punjab up on merger talk

MUMBAI: Shares of Centurion Bank of Punjab soared Wednesday on reports that the bank is in talks with financial institutions for a possible merger. Centurion Bank of Punjab, in which Rana Talwar���s Sabre Capital holds management control, is in talks with financial institutions and large banks for a possible merger, reports The Economic Times. However, indications are that CBoP is in no hurry to complete a deal.

At 12:04 pm, shares of Centurion Bank of Punjab were 4.53 per cent higher at Rs 48.45 on volume of 11,74,185 shares. It touched a high of Rs 50.50 and low of Rs 48. Recently, CBoP had a meeting with the Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation. New generation banks like ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank are also believed to be interested in CBoP, but this was denied by ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank.

The CBoP-IDFC proposal was also communicated to the Reserve Bank of India. However, RBI wants IDFC to preserve its status as a financial institution for infrastructure lending. For CBoP, a deal with IDFC will fetch a better price as the institution would be willing to pay a premium to get a banking licence. Shares of IDFC were at Rs 181, up 0.19 per cent on the BSE.