Himalayan, NIBL to ink merger agreement on Tuesday

KATHMANDU: The much awaited merger agreement between Nepal’s two pioneer banks, Nepal Investment Bank (NIBL) and Himalayan Bank Limited (HBL), will take place on Tuesday.

Though these two banks had agreed to go into merge long back. However, different issues including the rift between these two banks over consortium financing made in Smart Cell and power division, among others had been delaying the agreement signing process.

“Majority of issues have already been sorted out except the level of power to be given to the chief executive officer of the merged entity. As a tentative agreement has been reached out on this front, merger agreement will be inked within next few days, likely on Tuesday,” informed a source.

NIBL and HBL are planning to start joint operation from July 16. If the merger between NIBL and HBL becomes successful, the merged entity will be Nepal’s largest commercial bank with almost Rs 25 billion paid-up capital. AT present Global IME bank is the largest commercial bank in Nepal in terms of various indicators.