Canara Bank has entered into a share sale agreement with State Bank of India for the sale of equity shares held by it in the Commercial Indo Bank LLC (CIBL), Moscow for a consideration of $14.67 million.
Canara Bank informed the stock exchanges on Friday that it had transferred the entire shares held in CIBL to State Bank of India on November 30, 2022, with the consent of Central Bank of Russia.
CIBL is a joint venture between SBI and Canara Bank, in a ratio of 60:40, and was incorporated in Russia in 2003.
The state-owned lender said that even though the transfer of all the shares held by it in CIBL to SBI is completed, the consideration in US dollar as agreed by the parties has not yet been received, and the transaction is expected to complete by the end of of the current financial year, that is, on or before March 31, 2023.
In an interaction with CNBC-TV18, Nitin Aggarwal of Motilal Oswal said that the growth in adjusted book value of PSU banks remained nearly as high as their private counterparts.
Aggarwal also spoke about the asset quality of these lenders, which was an issue earlier but is now improving, aided by a recovery in corporate asset quality and robust provisioning.
Among his top picks for investment in the sector, were the State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and Canara Bank. “SBI has been our top bet for all these years. And after SBI, we like BoB and Canara Bank in banks,” he said.
Shares of Canara Bank ended 0.3 percent lower at Rs 319.20, while those of State Bank of India ended 0.5 percent higher at Rs 592.95.
