On February 26, 2000, Times Bank Ltd merged with HDFC Bank Ltd. It was the first friendly merger in the Indian banking space and the first through a share-swap route. It catapulted HDFC Bank into the big league in terms of business as well as market valuation.
This was an appetiser for HDFC Bank. The main course would arrive eight years later. In February 2008, the boards of HDFC Bank and Centurion Bank of Punjab Ltd (Centurion BoP) agreed to take the plunge and effect the biggest merger in Indian banking history then.
Centurion BoP was four banks in one, having acquired
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