Saudi British Bank secures binding deal for $5 billion acquisition of Alawwal | Reuters

Saudi British Bank secures binding deal for $5 billion acquisition of Alawwal | Reuters:

Saudi British Bank (SABB) 1060.SE has secured a binding agreement to take over smaller rival Alawwal Bank 1040.SE to create Saudi Arabia’s third-biggest lender with a market capitalization of about $17.2 billion.

Under the deal that was announced in May as a non-binding agreement, Alawwal’s assets and liabilities will be transferred to SABB, the larger of the two lenders, the banks said.

The first major banking tie-up in the kingdom in two decades has taken longer than expected, partly because the regulatory environment for bank acquisitions in Saudi Arabia is relatively untested.