BankIslami interested in Citibank’s housing finance business

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Mushfiq Ahmad
KARACHI: BankIslami Pakistan has expressed its interest in acquiring the consumer housing finance portfolio of Citibank Pakistan, according to a letter sent by the bank to the Karachi Stock Exchange. It said it had entered into a Non Disclosure Agreement with the Citibank for its due diligence. The acquisition is subject to necessary due diligence, mutual agreement between BankIslami and Citibank, and approvals from Board of Directors and relevant regulatory authorities. BankIslami said it was going to commence the due diligence of the consumer housing finance portfolio of Citibank from May 19.

It is interesting to note here that Citibank President Arif Usmani had said a few months ago that there was no plan to sell Citibank or any of its business segments. He had strongly denied rumours that Citibank Pakistan was looking for buyers owing to the problems its consumer finance business had been facing and because of weakened position of Citibank globally.

BankIslami Pakistan is, on the other hand, a fast growing Islamic bank. It started operations on April 07, 2006. Since then it has grown very fast. Interestingly, State Bank's latest Islamic Banking bulletin says the bank had 70 branches by the end of March 2009 while its (BankIslami's) website says it had 102 branches by the end of 2008. BankIslami had a deposit base of Rs 12.478 billion and asset base of Rs 19.089 billion at the end of 2008. The bank recorded a loss of Rs 52.93 million in 2008, but chief executive officer Hasan A Bilgrami stated in annual report 2008 that they expect to reverse bank's losses towards the end of second quarter.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...2009_pg5_2