Kuwait Finance House (KFH), the Gulf country's largest lender, is looking at opportunities to expand in Saudi Arabia, it said in a bourse filing on Tuesday, following a report that it was considering taking a stake in peer Saudi Investment Bank.
Trading in the company's shares, which were suspended before the market open, resumed after KFH issued a statement in response to the report.
KFH said it was conducting studies on the potential expansion and that these were in line with the bank strategy envisioning potential investments in the region, including in Saudi Arabia.
“Regarding the news published by Bloomberg, KFH confirms that it is still studying the available opportunities in more than one bank, and no memorandum of understanding or any agreement has been signed with any bank in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” the lender said.
Amid news of the potential deal, shares of Saudi Investment Bank (SAIB) jumped as much as 4% in Riyadh trading Tuesday.
On Tadawul, the shares of SAIB, the second smallest listed bank in the Saudi financial market in terms of assets and capital following Bank AlJazira, ranged between 13.26 Riyals and 12.78 Riyals, closing on the latest figure.
Meanwhile, the share of KFH Bank, which is the largest in Kuwait in terms of assets and capital, rose by less than 0.50% at 0.717 Kuwaiti dinars.
The Kuwaiti government and the Public Authority for Minors Affairs own 31.5% of KFH’s shares. Vanguard Group owns 2.45% of the Bank’s shares and BlackRock owns 1.75%.
As for the Saudi Investment Bank, it is owned by the General Organization for Social Insurance - Saudi Arabia (25.6%), Yasser Mohammed Al Jarallah (4.6%), Vanguard Group (2%) and BlackRock (1.2%).
