Clawback clauses may see the foreign bank get much less than the $1.6 billion agreed upon, given the steady erosion in its customer base and revenues.
On 30 March this year, when Citibank India announced the sale of its retail business to Axis Bank, the deal clocked in at $1.6 billion—almost 60% more than the street estimate of $1 billion.
The announcement brought the curtains down on a year-long process of trying to sell the global banking giant’s retail business in the country, a process that was micromanaged by the bank’s headquarters in New York.
By all accounts, having got themselves a good deal, Citibank executives should now be sitting pretty, waiting for completion of the transfer of assets. That would have been the case too, …
Furquan leads the banking coverage at The Morning Context. A business journalist with eight years of experience and a best-selling author, in his earlier stints as a reporter with the Deccan Herald and a columnist at The Banker, he wrote on banking, financial markets and regulatory affairs. He has extensively covered India's debt market crisis, banking crisis and the fall of Yes Bank.
Editor, Banking
furquan@mailtmc.com
Delhi