KARACHI: Meezan Bank has acquired Pakistani branch operations of HSBC Bank Middle East after fulfilling all regulatory requirements.
HSBC Pakistan consisted of 10 branches and had total assets of Rs48 billion at the end of 2013. After the merger, all customers of HSBC Pakistan will automatically become customers of Meezan Bank.
Earlier on, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) sanctioned the scheme of amalgamation of HSBC Pakistan with Meezan Bank following the fulfilment of all regulatory requirements.
Meezan Bank has already stated that it intends to make the operations of HSBC Shariah-compliant, while ensuring that the existing customer base continues to receive uninterrupted banking services.
Meezan Bank has the experience of acquiring a foreign bank and converting its operations from conventional to Islamic.
It acquired Societe Generale in Pakistan through a similar transaction in 2002. The Competition Commission of Pakistan also gave its go-ahead to the proposed transaction and issued a no objection certificate in August. The information about the size of the transaction is still not in the public domain.
According to media reports, the sale of HSBC Pakistan is part of a strategy by Europe’s biggest bank to exit from countries where it is unprofitable or lacks scale. Like HSBC, Europe-based Barclays Bank is also leaving the Pakistan market for good.
Recently, Habib Bank announced that it was negotiating with Barclays Bank for the acquisition of its Pakistan operations.
