ANSA Mer­chant Bank Lim­it­ed has signed an agree­ment to pur­chase Bank of Bar­o­da’s op­er­a­tions in T&T, which if ap­proved will al­low it to do all as­pects of com­mer­cial bank­ing.

The an­nounce­ment was made yes­ter­day by ANSA which an­nounced a share pur­chase agree­ment to ac­quire the Bank of Bar­o­da Trinidad and To­ba­go Lim­it­ed.

The agree­ment was signed yes­ter­day, De­cem­ber 11, with the ac­qui­si­tion sub­ject to reg­u­la­to­ry ap­proval and the ful­fil­ment of spe­cif­ic con­di­tions as con­tained in the share pur­chase agree­ment.

Chair­man A Nor­man Sab­ga ex­plained that un­der the agree­ment ANSA Mer­chant Bank Lim­it­ed agreed to pur­chase 525,597 or­di­nary shares, rep­re­sent­ing 100 per cent of the to­tal is­sued and out­stand­ing shares held in the Bank of Bar­o­da Trinidad and To­ba­go Lim­it­ed.

Broad­Span Cap­i­tal and Singhi Ad­vi­sors were ex­clu­sive ad­vis­ers to ANSA Mer­chant Bank for the trans­ac­tion.

Once the trans­ac­tion is com­plet­ed, Sab­ga said the “com­bined strengths of ANSA Mer­chant Bank Lim­it­ed and this com­mer­cial bank­ing en­ti­ty will great­ly en­hance the scope of the ANSA’s bank­ing and fi­nan­cial ser­vices to in­clude all as­pects of re­tail bank­ing, as well as cor­po­rate and in­vest­ment bank­ing ser­vices, as­set fi­nanc­ing, in­vest­ment ser­vices and wealth man­age­ment.”

Sab­ga said the sig­nif­i­cant event “is a nat­ur­al evo­lu­tion of our bank’s his­to­ry.”

ANSA Mer­chant opened its doors forty years ago as a whol­ly in­dige­nous bank. Over the decades Sab­ga said the bank had grown from strength to strength in­to a world class fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tion sus­tained by the cream of the Fi­nan­cial Ser­vices In­dus­try.

Sab­ga said ANSA Mer­chant Bank is “en­thu­si­as­tic about the prospects for the fu­ture and the many ex­cit­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties that this ac­qui­si­tion will of­fer our clients and the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”