ING Vysya Bank Ltd. has denied the reports of ING looking at selling its India operations and divesting its stake in the ING Vysya Bank, referring to the report as “speculative in nature”. The bank has enquired with its foreign promoter, ING Group, about the media reports, the bank said in a statement to the Bombay stock exchange.
The bank has quoted ING Amsterdam saying, “ING remains committed to ING Vysya Bank and considers ING Vysya Bank as one of the selective growth options as described in our strategy update," in a communiqué to BSE.
ING has further clarified that it is not in talks with any consultants or merchant bankers in this regard.
It was reported yesterday that ING Groep NV was looking at selling its India operations. CNBC TV-18 had reported that 4 bankers had confirmed to the TV news channel that consultants had approached them in this regard.
The report pointed out that the ING Amsterdam officials had recently made a presentation that says that the bank is looking at exiting out from 10 of the 48 countries it has operations in.
ING currently holds 43.8% stake in ING Vysya Bank. despite being a foreign owned bank, it enjoys the liberty in terms of opening branches, unlike other foreign owned banks. The bank’s networth, as on March 31, 2009, is valued at Rs 1,594 crore. While its deposite stood at Rs 24,890 crore on March 31, the advances stood at Rs 16,751.
