Kuwait’s largest investment bank Global Investment House said on Monday it plans to sell its stake in Bahrain-based Islamic lender Salam Bank, continuing to divest stakes in banks abroad.
The bank said in a regulatory filing to the Dubai stock exchange the stake amounts to 14.1 percent of Salam’s paid-up capital.
It said the lowest acceptable share price is 140 Bahraini fils and if the stake is sold at this level the expected profit would be 6.4 million Kuwaiti dinars ($22.18m), which will be added to second-quarter profit.
The bid comes at a premium of 16 percent to Salam’s last closing share price of 121 fils on May 31 and values the bank at 168 million Bahraini dinars ($445.7 m), according to Reuters calculations.
Global in December closed the sale of a 14.7 percent stake in Bahrain’s BBK bank for 43.6 million dinars, making an 18 million dinar loss.
Global posted a first-quarter net loss of 69.5 million dinars, an improvement after a steep 360.5 million dinars loss in the fourth quarter. It defaulted on most of its debt earlier this year.
“Global intends to sell the shares in one go to a single investor or to an alliance or temporary consortium of investors,” the statement said.
It said the sale would take place on June 9. (Reuters)
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