Fairfax buys Catholic Syrian Bank for Rs 1,180 crore

KOCHI: India-born Canadian billionaire Prem

Watsa

has acquired majority shareholding in Thrissur-headquartered

Catholic Syrian Bank

(

CSB

), at a cost of Rs 1,180 crore.

The bank announced the proposal of

Fairfax India

, part of Watsa’s

Fairfax Financial Holdings

, after its director board meeting in Thrissur on Saturday.


The bank currently has just above eight crore shares and post-duplication, it will be doubled, said bank’s chairman TS Anantharaman.

“Fairfax will be investing Rs 1,180 crore for 51% of the overall 16 crore shares, at a price of Rs 140 a share. We got the confirmation only on Friday night and we just discussed the offer and decided to accept it,” he said.

Watsa’s

Fairfax

had already received the RBI’s special permission to acquire 51% shares of CSB. Fairfax had first approached the RBI for permission for investing in an Indian bank in June, 2016.

Fairfax piped other contenders such as Everstone Capital and Burmans of Dabar, which had pitched for a stake buy in one of the oldest private banks in the country.

CSB had registered a net interest income of Rs 314 crore and non-interest income of Rs 281 crore during FY17. Net profit for the period was Rs 1.55 crore.

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