The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has given its final approval for the acquisition of Civil Bank by Himalayan Bank Limited (HBL). A NRB board meeting last week gave its final consent for the acquisition. The HBL is acquiring Civil Bank at a swap ratio of 100:80. This means 100 shares of Civil Bank will get converted to 80.28 shares of Himalayan Bank after the acquisition. For Himalayan Bank, this acquisition has become a sort of a matter of reputation following the failed merger attempt with Nepal Investment Bank last year. Himalayan Bank started an initiative to acquire another commercial bank after its merger with Nepal Investment Bank Limited (NIB) got derailed at the final stage.

The HBL-NIB eight months long merger process was aborted after the 29th annual general meeting (AGM) of HBL held on January 14, 2022, disapproved the plan of merger with NIB. Only 43.63 percent voted in favor of the merger while 42 percent came against the merger. As per the rules, a merger proposal will only be passed after 75 percent of the shareholders of the bank approve it. Three major shareholders of the HBL - Employees’ Provident Fund, N Trading Company, and Chhaya International- stood against the merger.

With Nepal Rastra Bank continuously pushing the HBL for the merger, the bank on July 13, 2022, signed an acquisition MoU with Civil Bank.