Saudi Arabia's biggest lender NCB in merger talks with Samba - Reuters:
National Commercial Bank (1180.SE), Saudi Arabia’s biggest lender, said on Thursday it had signed an initial agreement with smaller lender Samba Financial Group (1090.SE) to create a combined entity with almost $214 billion in assets.
NCB’s offer would value each Samba share at 27.42 to 29.32 riyals ($7.82), giving it a maximum market value of $15.63 billion, 27.5% above its market value of nearly $12.3 billion based on Wednesday’s closing price.
Low oil prices and weak economic growth are pushing bank consolidation across the Gulf and if completed the merger would create one of the region’s largest lenders by assets, ranking third after Qatar National Bank (QNB) and UAE’s First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB.AD).
In a bourse filing, NCB said it had signed a framework agreement for a potential merger with Samba, confirming an earlier Reuters story on the merger talks.
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