Dubai:
Saudi Arabia’s capital market regulator said it has given a nod to Saudi British Bank to its request to increase its capital to merge Alawwal Bank.
Saudi British Bank had requested to increase its capital to 20 billion Saudi riyals (Dh19.59 billion) from the earlier 15 billion riyals by issuing 554 million shares. This would be done to merge SAAB with Alawwal Bank and to take the latter’s assets and liabilities.
Upon acceptance of the arrangement by the Saudi British Bank and Alawwal Bank by their shareholders, the new shares will be issued to Alawwal Bank shareholders who are registered at the Securities Depository Centre Company. The shares of Alawwal Bank will be delisted from the Saudi Stock Exchange after the merger decision becomes effective.
Earlier Saudi British Bank, in which HSBC owns 40 per cent, had agreed to acquire Alwwal Bank in a $5 billion (Dh18.36 billion) deal to create Saudi’s third largest lender.
In a separate statement, the regulator also gave approval to Saudi International Petrochemical Company (Sipchem) to increase its capital to acquire all shares of Sahara Petroluem Company. Sipchem received an approval to increase its capital to 7.33 billion riyals from the previous 3.66 billion by issuing 366 million shares.
Box:
The Saudi Stock Exchange Company (Tadawul) said listing and trading of shares of Al Moammar Information Systems Company will start from Wednesday.
The company will bear the symbol of 7200, with a 10 per cent daily price fluctuation limit per share, the bourse said in a statement,
On Tuesday, Saudi Tadawul index was up 0.47 per cent to be at 9,237.90.