Vijaya Bank board has approved the merger proposal with Bank of Baroda, Dena Bank

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The board of state-run Vijaya Bank on Saturday gave in-principle approval for its merger with Bank of Baroda along with another PSU lender Dena Bank. Earlier this month, the government announced the merger of Bank of Baroda, Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank to create the country’s second-largest public sector bank by assets and branches.

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The board at their meeting held on Saturday decided to give its in-principle approval for amalgamation of Vijaya Bank along with Bank of Baroda and Dena Bank in line with the finance ministry’s proposal of 17 September, subject to all statutory approvals, Vijaya Bank said in a filing to stock exchanges.

Amalgamation would enable creation of a bank with business scale comparable to global banks and capable of competing effectively in India and globally,” it said. Greater scale and synergy would lead to cost-benefit, higher productivity and efficiency of the banking system as a whole, it added.

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The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has ordered an inspection of Vakrangee Ltd.’s books for three financial years, five months after Price Waterhouse resigned as the firm’s auditor.

The process will include scrutiny of the auditor’s resignation, Vakrangee’s tax filings in the past five years, the number of outlets across India through which it provides financial services, and its shareholding structure, the company said in a filing to the exchange.

The investigation comes after Vakrangee shares crashed more than 93% this year as it is one of the several Indian companies that have faced auditor resignations, leading investors to doubt their accounting and business practices.

Vakrangee said it will “fully co-operate” with the investigation and try to complete the process at the earliest. The statement didn’t give any details on the timeline of the investigation.

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The top management of IL&FS sought to reassure shareholders that the debt-laden company had a clear plan to tide over its immediate crisis, during its annual general meeting on Saturday.

 

Three preference shareholders after the meeting said the company’s management had assured them that the Rs 4500 crore proposed rights issue will be completed by the end of October, and the company would set up a legal framework in the next 45 days to start the asset sale process, including a scheme of arrangement to separate healthy and sick assets.

One shareholder said the company was in talks with lenders for a bridge loan to infuse immediate liquidity, and was also looking for a moratorium from shareholders to extend payment dates.

ONGC Videsh Ltd and its partners in Russia’s Sakhalin-1 project have agreed to pay Russian giant Rosneft $230 million to settle an oil production dispute out-of-court, its Managing Director N K Verma said.

Rosneft had dragged the Sakhalin-1 consortium to court alleging “unjust enrichment and interest gained by using other people’s money” and claimed $1.4 billion in damages. The allegations were denied by the consortium.

“We have agreed for an out-of-court settlement and the consortium has agreed to pay $230 million,” Verma told reporters here. OVL holds 20% interest in Sakhalin-1 oil and gas fields and its share would be $46 million. “We have already paid the money,” he said.

ExxonMobil is the operator of the project with 30% interest. Japan’s SODECO has 30% interest and Rosneft the remaining 20%. Rosneft had demanded Rouble 89 billion from the consortium for oil that flowed to Sakhalin-1 from its controlled Northern Chayvo oilfield.

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