Indiabulls to Make $58 Million Bid for United Western
Added: (Fri Sep 08 2006)
Indiabulls Financial Services Ltd., a securities company whose shares have risen 13-fold in two years, joined the bidding for insolvent lender United Western Bank of India, its first attempt to buy a bank.
India's third-fastest growing financial services company plans to offer about 2.7 billion rupees ($58 million) in stock for the rural lender, Indiabulls said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. Citigroup Inc., Standard Chartered Plc. and ICICI Bank Ltd., are among 10 banks interested in United Western's 230 branches, mainly in the countryside around Mumbai, the nation's financial capital.
``Indiabulls can easily get into banking through this route and also acquire size quickly,'' said U.P. Bhat, who manages the equivalent of $111 million at Canbank Investment Management in Mumbai and doesn't own any bank shares.
Indiabulls, which counts Indian billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, the world's fifth-richest man, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. among its investors, began offering online brokerage services in 2000. The company sells financial products and services to 300,000 customers in 124 cities across India. Foreign institutional investors own 38 percent and founders Sameer Gehlaut, Rajiv Rattan and Saurabh Mittal hold 31 percent.
courtesy:http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=a52yWMqjCS7o&refer=asia
Article published on:http://www.investmentbankingcentral.com
<-- google -->
Submitted by:
johnp