CSB's share transfer completed

The share transfer of Catholic Syrian Bank has been completed with the allotment of 23.2 per cent equity shares to 20 investors, amounting to over Rs 157 crore, a top official said today.
"In all 87,44,090 shares of the bank at the rate of Rs 180 per share, each with face value of Rs 10 and premium of Rs 170, amounting to Rs 157,39,36,200 were allotted to the new investors, the bank's Managing Directer and CEO Rakesh Bhatia told PTI here.
The share transfer issue of the CSB was pending over two decades, Bhatia said.
The take over bid of the bank in 1994 by Bangkok-based NRIs Siam Vidhya Group, headed by Surachan Chansrichawla, by acquiring bank's 19,59,016 shares out of a total of 54,14,000 shares, ran into rough weather with the Catholic Archdiocese coming out against it.

SVG had acquired about 20 per cent of shares at the rate of Rs 85 per share in 1994.
The then bishop of Thrissur diocese Mar Joseph Kundukulam had threatened to withdraw all the deposits of Christian institutions and the community, running into several crores of rupees, if the bank directors did not desist from their move of transferring their shares to the NRI firm.

A Catholic Syrian Bank Protection Committee was also formed under the leadership of the Bishop and it moved a petition in the Company Law Board and Supreme Court against the takeover bid.
The apex court on May 2, 2008 had directed SVG to divest CSB's stakes in excess of 10 per cent in its possession by end of March 2010. After that, the CSB could transfer the shares, it had said.

Among the 20 new investors of the bank included Indorama Corporation Pvt Ltd, Singapore (3.29 per cent), India 2020 Fund II Ltd, Mauritius (3.29 per cent), M A Yusuf Ali, Abu Dhabi (4.97 per cent), he said.
Ali had earlier acquired 4.98 per cent of shares raising his total stake in the bank to 9.95 per cent.