Qatar’s Al Khalij Shares Rise After $2.2 Billion Share-Swap Deal
(Bloomberg) -- Al Khalij Commercial Bank PQSC shares surged Sunday after it agreed with Masraf Al Rayan QSC for a share-swap combination that will create Qatar's second-largest lender.
The shares climbed as much as 8.7% in Doha, the biggest intraday gain in more than two months. Masraf Al Rayan shares rose 0.8%.
Masraf Al Rayan plans to issue 0.5 securities for every Al Khalij share for the merger. The deal is valued at 8.2 billion riyals ($2.2 billion), according to Bloomberg calculations.
Combining with Al Khalij will see Al Rayan leapfrog its next two largest competitors by giving it $47 billion in assets -- still six times less than that of Qatar National Bank QPSC. Qatar has 2.5 million people being served by about 20 local and international banks, leaving smaller lenders at a disadvantage unless they can find a niche or competitive edge.
The combination will “create a larger and stronger financial institution with a strong financial position and significant liquidity available to support Qatar's economic growth,” the lenders said Thursday.
Al Rayan's Ali Bin Ahmad Al Kuwari will become chairman and Al Khalij's Sheikh Hamad Bin Faisal Bin Thani Al-Thani will become vice chairman of merged entity. The executive committee of the board will be chaired by Sheikh Hamad Bin Faisal Bin Thani Al-Thani.
Al Rayan and Al Khalij started talks in June last year amid a wave of bank consolidations in the Gulf's financial industry. Lenders are seeking to build scale to cope with the fallout of lower oil prices and the economic havoc caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Middle East Inks $25 Billion of Deals Defying Virus Gloom
The spate of large transactions has helped consolidate a fragmented industry. Saudi Arabia's largest lender, National Commercial Bank, last year bought Samba Financial Group for $15 billion in one of the biggest banking takeovers of 2020.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is financial adviser to Al Rayan and Al Khalij.
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
-
Signature Play: The Classic Cocktail Is Dead. Or Is It?
Classic cocktails are disappearing from India's cocktail menus. But they're still being ordered, taught to bartenders and borrowed from. So, who's really having the last drink?
-
A New Samvat Wishlist: Inclusive Prosperity And Human Development
India has strengthened its economic foundations through infrastructure, digital access and enterprise. Its next growth chapter must deepen productivity, create better livelihoods and widen participation in prosperity.
-
Love, Sex Aur Dhokha: The Audacious Plot To Spy On Jensen Huang
A Taipei dinner, a Singapore chip buyer and a suspected Chinese asset: inside the alleged spy operation that got close to NVIDIA's Jensen Huang.
-
Ten Things I Learnt This Samvat
Patience can be a trap. Cheap stocks can stay cheap. Leverage can wipe you out. What did Samvat 2082 teach us? Niraj Shah writes on 10 lessons from the year gone by.
-
Talking Points This Week: Tech Nerves, FII Buying, And A Faraway Banking Shock
The global markets are not shining this Diwali. The exception in the large markets is, India.
-
Midterm Rally Lasted A Day. The Hard Reality Of A Divided US May Last Two Years | Opinion
Between a contested AI boom, a debt ceiling that arrives in 2027 and a president with every incentive to act alone, the next two years may prove more volatile than the first day's rally suggests.
-
Blue Wave Will Derail the AI Trade but Won't Dismantle the AI Era | Unhedged Position
The Democrats' sweep of the US Congress will see politics collide with economic forces both over the long and short term.
-
It's Time To Take The GST Council's Bet On Trust Global
Payment records can prove India's services exports, and clear, proportionate rules can bring foreign digital sellers into the tax net.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
