Stocks Observer. com

(Bloomberg Report) MCB Bank Ltd., Pakistan’s biggest by market value, and Habib Bank Ltd. are competing to buy Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc’s local operations as the U.K. lender seeks to raise capital following a government takeover. MCB and Habib Bank, the second-largest, plan to apply to the central bank for approval to begin a due diligence review of RBS Pakistan, the lenders said in separate statements to the Karachi Stock Exchange today. The unit has a market value of 21.4 billion rupees ($266 million). The purchase would give the banks an edge in a nation that forecasts an economic revival starting in the next fiscal year. Pakistan’s economy may expand more than 6 percent annually on average over the next five years, Shaukat Tarin, adviser to the prime minister, said last month, as the nation seeks $6 billion in aid from countries including the U.S. and Japan. “Habib Bank would turn into the biggest by assets and deposits, while it is already the biggest by branches,” follow...