Ahli shareholder accepts $6.1bn Qatar bid

The second largest shareholder of Bahrain's Ahli United Bank has asked it to open its books to International Bank of Qatar, which made a takeover bid worth around $6.1 billion, the Bahraini bank said.

Kuwait's Tamdeen Investment Co. and investors it represents had accepted in principle International Bank's offer to pay $2.25 per share for a 55 percent stake in Bahrain's largest bank by market value, Ahli United said in a statement on Saturday.

International Bank, an affiliate of National Bank of Kuwait, has offered to buy the remaining 45 percent in stock, Ahli United said in the statement on the Kuwait bourse Web site.

Tamdeen owns around 13 percent of the bank's stock. The statement did not say who the other investors were or how many shares they held.

"Tamdeen Investment Co. asked Ahli United bank to allow International Bank of Qatar to conduct due diligence and coordinate with International Bank of Qatar on this issue," Ahli United said in its first comment on the bid.

The deal is pending Bahraini regulatory approval, it added.

Tamdeen said earlier this month the Qatari bank had approached it and other Ahli United shareholders with an offer to pay between $2.05 and $2.25 per share in cash and stock.

The Kuwaiti investment firm had said it would work with other shareholders on the takeover bid.

Ahli United's stock last traded at $1.39 on July 10, after which it was suspended because of takeover rumours. It had climbed 39 percent since April 14 when Kuwaiti newspaper al-Qabas first reported a takeover bid. The Kuwaiti bourse said Ahli stock would resume trading on Sunday.

Tamdeen's chairman could not be reached for comment on Saturday when Reuters called his office. Muhannad Kamal, deputy chief executive of International Bank of Qatar, declined to comment. NBK has declined to comment on the deal in the past.

MERGERS

More Gulf Arab banks are looking for mergers and acquisitions to gain the scale to cope with demand for credit, which has been spurred by economic growth and government investment of windfall oil revenue in infrastructure.

Emirates Bank International Ltd. and National Bank of Dubai earlier this month announced details of an $11.3 billion, government-initiated deal that would combine them into the Gulf's largest lender by assets, called Emirates NBD.

International Bank of Qatar is 20 percent owned and managed by NBK, which has been looking to expand abroad to fend off competition at home from foreign lenders. Ahli United also said in the statement that Tamdeen had asked it to present a share swap deal with the Qatari bank to shareholders holding the remaining 45 percent of the bank.

The shares in the swap deal should be fairly valued and not under the price that Tamdeen and investors it represented would be getting, the bank said without elaborating.

The bank also said that the Qatari bank should have exclusive negotiation rights, "so that no negotiations are conducted with any other party".

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