Mumbai-headquartered Axis Bank has completed the acquisition of the India consumer business of the Citigroup-owned foreign bank Citibank for Rs 12,325 crore prior to evaluation of the closing position of Citibank India’s assets, assets under management, and liabilities as of January 31, 2023. Post evaluation, the deal is valued at around Rs 11,603 crore. As per this deal, Axis Bank has acquired Citibank’s India consumer business from Citibank N.A. or CBNA and the non-banking financial company (NBFC) consumer business from Citicorp Finance (India) Limited or CFIL, according to a recent exchange filing by Axis Bank.
The filing read, “We now wish to inform you that completion of the acquisition of Citibank’s India consumer business from CBNA and the NBFC consumer business from CFIL as going concers, without values being assigned to individual assets and liabilities for either business shall happen on March 1, 2023.”
Axis Bank further said the amount to acquire Citibank India’s consumer business is based on the closing position of the latter’s assets, assets under management (AUM), and liabilities as of January 31, 2023. The filing added the acquisition of the consumer business of Citibank India is in accordance with the requirements and terms of the agreed contractual documentation and settlement of consideration.
“Given the structure of the transaction, thee aforesaid cash consideration along with any true up or true down shall be accounted for as goodwill and other intangibles, which will be entirely amortised for accounting purposes in 2023,” the filing noted.
But will the customer experience be affected due to this acquisition? According to Citibank India’s website, consumer banking customers can continue using existing Citi products and/or services, branches, ATMs, internet banking and Citi Mobile App as usual. Axis Bank provides Citi branded consumer banking products in India temporarily whereas Citi India is providing certain services.
It further stated, “The trademarks “Citi”, “Citibank”, “Citigroup”, the Arc design and all similar trademarks and derivations thereof are used temporarily under license by Axis Bank from Citigroup Inc. and related group entities.”
