Summit Bank to continue its normal functions till merger: Raza Durrani

KARACHI: Summit Bank Limited will continue functioning normally, by doing daily transactions and fulfilling its all liabilities to the depositors, till its merger with Sindh Bank after clearance from Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, President, Summit Bank Limited, Ahsan Raza Durrani, President, Sindh Bank, Tariq Ahsan and Director Sindh Bank, Muhammad Bilal Shaikh strongly refuted the rumors through social media about the suspension of operations by Summit Bank Limited.

Summit Bank's President/CEO Ahsan Raza Durrani informed that annual general meetings of both the banks would be held here on August 31, 2018 where the merger plan and its terms and conditions, and the future policy would be approved.

After this approval, both the banks would submit the plan before the Supreme Court of Pakistan. The apex court has directed the management of these banks to submit details of their merger plan including the reasons behind this decision.

"Hopefully, the Supreme Court of Pakistan will issue green signal and the merger will be completed before the end of September 2018," remarked Ahsan Raza Durrani and Muhammd Bilal Shaikh.

On August 3, 2018, Board of Directors of both the banks had approved the merger, he said.

He said that after the merger Summit Bank would lost its identity and would become a part of Sindh Bank, which is a public sector bank.

On intervention of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the shares ratio for the merger has been fixed at 8.37 Summit Bank shares for one share of Sindh Bank. Earlier this ratio was 4.1 : 1. After the merger, the equity pool would be around Rs 27 billion--Rs 17 billion from Sindh Bank and Rs 10 billion from Summit Bank.

Summit Bank's President said his bank had no political affiliation with any political party and was never involved in any money laundering.

To a question from media, he said there would be no effect of money laundering case on the merger plan.

Presidents of both the banks assured that there would be down-sizing of employees of the banks at least for one year after the merger and their benefits would remain intact.

They explained that the major reasons for the merger were : having broad base of branches network-- meeting the required equity level and other legal requirements set by State Bank of Pakistan and at international level.

Sindh Bank's Director Muhammad Bilal Shaikh said another major reason was that SBP had directed his bank to go for public listing at the earliest.

After the merger, initial public offering (IPO) would be held where around forty percent shares would be floated for the public and the remaining shares would be with Sindh Government.