RIYADH: The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority’s has given its ‘no objection’ in respect of the merger of Alawwal Bank and Saudi British Bank, a statement issued to Tadawul said.
[the_ad id=”32940″]“Banks will continue to work on satisfying the conditions required to complete the transaction, including obtaining the other relevant regulatory approvals. Completion of the transaction is not yet certain and remains subject to all conditions referred to in the transaction announcements,” it said.
Once the other relevant regulatory approvals have been obtained, Alawwal bank’s board will issue a circular addressed to its shareholders setting out the views of its board of directors on the transaction.
Saudi British Bank will concurrently publish an offer document addressed to the shareholders of Alawwal bank, which will set out the relevant details about the transaction, and a circular addressed to its shareholders in respect of the transaction and the associated capital increase. Both banks will thereafter call for their respective extraordinary general assemblies to vote on the transaction.
As indicated in the transaction announcements, Alawwal bank still expects that the transaction will complete during the first half of 2019.
Pursuant to the terms of the agreement, Saudi British Bank and Alawwal bank will merge and all of the assets and liabilities of Alawwal bank will be transferred to Saudi British Bank. On completion of the merger, Saudi British Bank will continue to exist and Alawwal bank will cease to exist as a legal entity and its shares will be cancelled and new shares in Saudi British Bank will be issued to shareholders of Alawwal bank.
Reference to the combined bank in this announcement means Saudi British Bank following the completion of the merger.
If the merger is completed, Alawwal bank shareholders will receive 0.485 new Saudi British Bank shares for each Alawwal bank share. The new shares will be issued by way of a capital increase, which will increase the Saudi British Bank paid-up capital by 37.0% from SAR 15 billion to SAR 20.547 billion.