Qatar Natl Bank to buy 24% of UAE bank

Qatar National Bank said on Wednesday it intends buying a 23.77 percent stake in Dubai-based Commercial Bank International, the latest cross-border Gulf acquisition as regional banks expand to diversify revenues.

Shares of CBI surged almost 10 percent after Qatar National said it proposed to buy 297.69 million shares in Commercial Bank to broaden its footprint outside Qatar, the world's largest exporter of liquefied natural gas.

A 24 percent stake in CBI would be worth just over 1 billion UAE dirhams ($272.3 million), based on Tuesday's closing share price.

"This strategic stake is to broaden the network of QNB outside of Qatar," Andrew Duff, QNB's head of international banking, told Reuters. Qatar National is the country's biggest bank by market value.

Gulf Arab banks have been expanding abroad as competition intensifies in their home markets, and small UAE lenders are prime targets.

Last year, Commercial Bank of Qatar bought a near 35 percent stake in Sharjah-based United Arab Bank , while last week Global Investment House of Kuwait said it would buy 20 percent of National Bank of Umm al-Qiwain .

Qatar National aims to boost foreign operations' share of profit to as much as 30 percent within five years, expanding in the Middle East and Africa, Chief Executive Ali Shareef al-Emadi said in January.

The bank, which owns a more than 30 percent stake in Jordan's Housing Bank for Trade & Finance , plans to begin operations in Syria, Sudan and Mauritania this year, and in March took over the government's stake in Tunisian-Qatari bank.

The Qatar Investment Authority, the Gulf state's sovereign wealth fund, owns about 50 percent of Qatar National. (Reuters)

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