The Hindu Business Line : Why did SBI pick up State Bank of Saurashtra to kick off consolidation?

Chennai, Aug 29 For a very long time, SBI associates have remained in the shadow of the giant parent while many comparative banks overtook the associates and became much bigger.

Although small and dependent on the parent bank for resources, including managerial talent, many of these associate banks set enviable standards in terms of operating performance and efficiency, according to Mr Robin Roy, Associate Director, PricewaterhouseCoopers.

In an e-mail interview to Business Line shortly after SBI kicked off the consolidation process by announcing its decision to merge State Bank of Saurashtra (SBS) with itself, Mr Roy dwelt on issues such as why SBI picked SBS for the merger and how it will iompact valuations, among others. Excerpts:

First, why the merger?

The Finance Minister has been advocating consolidation among Indian banks to enable them to participate in overseas acquisition activities of Indian companies.

Relative to global banks, the small size of their balance sheets has always constrained these banks. So, if the largest commercial bank in the country is looking at consolidation moves, it is perhaps only logical.

What recent measures have facilitated consolidation?

As a step towards further autonomy of the SBI subsidiaries and to bring them at par with other public sector banks, the Government has lowered the minimum shareholding of SBI in its subsidiaries to 51 per cent and allowed them to issue preference shares.

Thus, the way was clear for the “group of 7” subsidiary banks of SBI to approach the capital market for raising resources to fund business growth and also proactively meet the Basel-II norms on capital adequacy.

Will the merger impact the valuations?

Yes. The valuation ratios for the subsidiaries are much better than the parent bank itself. Therefore, post-merger, SBI is likely to get a better valuation.

How has the SBI been preparing itself for consolidation?

As often stated in public, SBI has been preparing for a virtual merger of all its associate banks for quite some time. Some of the steps taken in this direction include:

Adopting a similar technology platform across associates and the parent bank to make the “virtual merger” a reality.

Adopting similar business policies and risk management approaches.

Consolidating and unifying the ATM network within the SBI group (viz. SBM debit card holders can use SBI ATMs).

Move towards integrating the treasuries of all the associates in Mumbai.

But why SBS?

Of the seven associates, SBS was the first to be picked because of a few strategic reasons:

It is the smallest of all associate banks.

It operates mostly in a smaller geographic region (Saurashtra) whereby it can complement SBI’s limited presence there.

Historically, the associate banks have had mutually exclusive fund transfer arrangements vis-À-vis SBI network to obviate duplication of channels. Post merger the combined resources will be filling in residual gaps in the existing operations.

It is owned entirely by SBI. Since there is no other shareholder, SBI could move quickly ahead with the merger.

A description of the post-merger scenario.

In addition to spreading its reach to the Saurashtra region, adding a workforce of 7,000 employees, the merger will increase the size of SBI’s balance sheet by Rs 19,000 crore.

In the domestic context, the merger of SBS gives the bank an additional Rs 15,871 crore of deposits and Rs 11,162 crore of advances.

Against this, ICICI Bank added over Rs 65,000 crore of deposits and Rs 49,000 crore of advances in 2006-07.

Following the SBI-SBS merger, the new entity will have combined assets exceeding Rs 5,85,365 crore, reserves of over Rs 31,500 crore and a combined net worth in excess of Rs 33,422 crore.

In comparison, ICICI Bank now has total assets of Rs 3,44,658 crore, reserves of Rs 23,414 crore and net worth of Rs 24,313 crore.

On the immediate priorities.

It should be noted here that the merger is not formally over. The Government and the RBI have to grant approval first. Once approvals are obtained, redundancies in terms of operating branches and optimal deployment of staff have to be looked into.

What further action can we expect on the SBI consolidation front?

If the SBS merger experiment succeeds, there is speculation that SBI will move ahead quickly with merging the other six associates by 2009.

The other unlisted associates in order of increasing size (State Bank Hyderabad and State Bank of Patiala) are expected to be the next merger targets. The listed ones could follow next.

Will this fuel M&A activity in the industry?

Yes, according to one school of thought, which believes that the anticipated series of SBI mergers might trigger more mergers and acquisitions amongst the remaining players.

This will be fuelled by two reasons, it is argued:

After the opening of the banking sector to foreign players in 2009, pressures on national players will increase further.

The two major national players – ICICI and SBI – will be even further ahead in the number game, post-mergers.