Bank Asia signs deal to acquire Bank Alfalah’s Bangladesh part

Bank Asia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Bank Alfalah on Wednesday for the acquisition of the Karachi-based Bank Alfalah’s Bangladesh operations.

The initial cost of the deal is approximately Tk 6 billion, officials said.

The final deal is subject to the approval of Bangladesh Bank, the State Bank of Pakistan and/or any other regulatory authorities, compliance with necessary legal/procedural requirements, and the execution of definitive agreements, according to a stock exchange filing on Thursday.

The acquisition of Bank Alfalah’s Bangladesh operations is expected to boost profit and add value to the publicly traded Bank Asia, as the foreign bank has healthy financial indicators.

In April last year, Bank Asia’s board approved, in principle, the negotiated acquisition of the assets and liabilities of Bank Alfalah’s Bangladesh operations.

Bank Alfalah Bangladesh
Bank Alfalah started its operations in Bangladesh in 2005 by acquiring the Dhaka branch of Shamil Bank of Bahrain. It now has seven branches in Bangladesh — five in Dhaka, one in Chattogram, and one in Sylhet.

Bank Alfalah is one of the largest banks in Pakistan, with a network of over 1,024 branches across more than 200 cities in the country, and an international presence in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bahrain, and the UAE.

Bank Asia
Starting operations in 1999, Bank Asia set a major milestone by acquiring the business operations of Nova Scotia in Dhaka — a pioneering move by a local bank to acquire a foreign bank’s Bangladesh assets.

Later, Bank Asia acquired the Bangladesh operations of Muslim Commercial Bank (MCB), another Pakistani bank, and the Bank of Nova Scotia in Dhaka, marking the first of its kind in the banking history of Bangladesh.

babulfexpress@gmail.com