DUBAI: The Middle East division of HSBC has stated that they are going to combine their Oman operations with Oman International Bank (OIB) and they would own just over half of the combined company.

HSBC has further stated that an injection of $97.4 million would be made into their existing operations before the deal is completed in June.

The bank, after the merger, would be known as HSBC Bank Oman and HSBC would control 51% of the combined bank.

According to HSBC, the OIB is the fifth largest bank having $3.2 billion assets by the end of 2011. It has the second largest number of branches in the Gulf country.