Kuwait Finance Said to Offer 35% Premium in $8 Billion Deal - Bloomberg

Kuwait Finance Said to Offer 35% Premium in $8 Billion Deal - Bloomberg:

Kuwait Finance House is considering offering a premium of about 35 percent to buy Bahrain’s Ahli United Bank BSC in a share swap deal that could create the Gulf’s sixth-biggest lender with $92 billion of assets, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Kuwaiti lender may offer one share for every 2.1 in Ahli United Bank, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. That would value the deal at about $8 billion, according Bloomberg calculations.

The premium is based on the companies’ closing share prices on Wednesday. Ahli United Bank has advanced about 11 percent since the banks started talks in July, while Kuwait Finance House has gained around 0.5 percent. The Bahraini bank may not accept the offer and the final terms of the deal could change, the people said.