On June 20, 2019, CCI approved the merger of Indiabulls Housing Finance Limited (‘IHFL’) and Indiabulls Commercial Credit Limited (‘ICCL’) into Lakshmi Vilas Bank Limited (‘LVB’) which will operate under the business name of Indiabulls Lakshmi Vilas Bank Limited. Thereafter, LVB proposed to raise funds from IHFL by way of a preferential allotment, to meet funding requirements which would increase the issued and paid-up share capital of the LVB up to INR 16,80,00,000 ( approx. USD 2,300,000). [1]

IHFL is a housing finance institution engaged in the business of providing home loans, provision of mutual funds and distribution of insurance products. ICCL is a wholly owned subsidiary of IHFL and is engaged in the business of providing long-term secured mortgage-backed loans. LVB is a scheduled commercial bank offering banking and ancillary financial services like distribution of insurance products and distribution of mutual funds.

CCI noted that IHFL Group and LVB overlap horizontally in the business of provision of loans in India, distribution of mutual funds, distribution of insurance policies/ products, provision of home loans, loan against property and MSME loans and distribution of life, health and general insurance products/schemes. CCI approved the combination since the incremental market share of the resultant company would be insignificant.

[1] Combination Registration No. C-2019/05/662.