The combination of National Commercial Bank and rival Samba Financial Group would create the third-largest lender in the Gulf Cooperation Council and a national champion to compete with regional players.
In what’s set to become the biggest banking takeover this year, Saudi Arabia’s largest lender by assets proposed to pay as much as $15.6 billion to acquire rival Samba.
The merged lender would have total assets of about $210 billion, making it the region’s largest behind Qatar National Bank QPSC and First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Saudi Arabia has almost 30 lenders catering to over 30 million people, compared with only about a dozen listed banks in the U.K. -- a country of about 65 million people. The kingdom has been taking steps to shore up its banking sector from the double whammy of the coronavirus shock and lower oil prices.
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