Bank Asia moves a step closer to Bank Alfalah acquisition

Bank Asia's board has approved the private commercial lender's plan to acquire the Bangladesh unit of Bank Alfalah Limited.

The consent came at the 522nd meeting of the board yesterday. 

The board approved the negotiated deal subject to compliance of all formalities and approval from regulatory authorities, according to a public disclosure.

The private bank's board also authorised the management to carry out all formalities to secure in-principle approval from the Bangladesh Bank, and sign the declaration/undertaking of confidentiality as part of due diligence process.

A day earlier, Karachi-based Bank Alfalah disclosed the information on the Pakistan Stock exchange. 

The foreign bank also approved the non-binding indicative offer received from Bank Asia to acquire the bank's Bangladesh operations, assets and liabilities. 

Sohail RK Hussain, managing director of Bank Asia, has also confirmed the ongoing acuisition process. 

However, it is not part of the current discussion of the merger of weak banks with strong banks, he said.