Andhra Bank merger: VRS likely

Hyderabad: Despite protests from employees’ unions intensifying by the day, speculation is rife over possible voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) from Andhra Bank. The bank’s board of directors is scheduled to meet on Friday (September 6) to consider the amalgamation proposal of Union Bank of India (UBI) and Corporation Bank. As part of the reconstruction of the bank, Andhra Bank may announce the VRS scheme, which is under active consideration of the board, according to the media reports.

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Andhra Bank’s employees' wage revision proposal is also pending with the board and this is expected to be approved by November enabling the smooth process of merger. The best salary package of the three banks will be taken up for implementing in the merged entity for all the employees. The merged entity will have a network of 9,609 branches with a business volume of Rs14.59 lakh crore.

The merger of Andhra Bank, Corporation Bank and UBI is expected to be completed by end of 2019 and the new entity will commence operations from April 2020 onwards.

Andhra Bank has a network of 2,900 branches and 21,000 employees on its rolls. The business volume was Rs3.98 lakh crore in FY19. It suffered a net loss of 2,786crore and revenues of 20,977 crores.

Andhra Bank’s stock on BSE is trading at Rs19.45 at 1:50 pm on Wednesday as compared to the previous close of Rs19.75. The total number of shares traded during the day was 193625 in over 597 trades.