Axis Bank Ltd to retail Citigroup Inc.

• Axis Bank Ltd is close to buying the retail bank Citigroup Inc.

• The deal is said to be worth the U.S $ 2.5 billion.

• An agreement with the consumer unit of the retail banking company will be announced shortly, once given approval by the Reserve Bank of India.

• The buyer Axis Bank will need six months to integrate its consumer business with Citigroup.

• The plans to sell the retail banking operations comes after the U.S lender Citigroup has planned to close its banking operations in 13 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, including India.