Doha Bank calls shareholder meeting to approve India assets buy

The board of Qatar’s Doha Bank has authorised the purchase of the Indian assets of HSBC Bank Oman, and has called a shareholder meeting in November to approve the deal, it said in a statement on Monday.

No value for the transaction was given in the statement to the Qatar Stock Exchange.

HSBC Bank Oman, an affiliate of HSBC Holding, said in April it had approved the sale of its Indian business to Doha Bank. The Omani lender said then it had two branches and gross assets worth 3.5 billion Indian rupees at the end of 2013.

Shareholders at the meeting will also be asked to approve the bank’s issuing of debt instruments of up to $2bn, with no single deal exceeding $750 million, it said.

Doha Bank, Qatar’s fifth-largest lender by assets, has sold one bond before: a $500m five-year issue in March 2012, which priced at a spread of 262.5 basis points over midswaps.

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