09 March 2005	Wednesday	27 Muharram 1426

KARACHI, March 8: Pakistan Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation (PICIC) has applied to State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) for merger with PICIC Commercial Bank.

This was stated by Managing Director PICIC Muhammad Ali Khoja while speaking at the road-show of the corporation's retail banking at Defence branch here on Tuesday. "We have submitted our request with the SBP and we want to merge with PICIC Commercial Bank before June 30, 2005 if all goes well", he said.

He said the board of directors of PICIC and PICIC Commercial Bank had already given approval to this merger and our consultants were working on the merger scheme.

Khoja said the consolidated accounts of PICIC Group for the year 2004 will be published in a couple of days. According to these accounts, total assets of the group were estimated at Rs81.684 billion, up by 31 per cent while deposits stood at Rs59.406 billion during 2004, showing a rise of 36 per cent. -APP