JEDDAH, 31 October 2004 — Global Investment House, a leading investment bank in the GCC region, has taken a strategic stake in a new bank promoted by BankMuscat, Oman’s largest bank.
Maha Khalid Al-Ghunaim, vice chairman and managing director of Global stated that this transaction is part of Kuwait-based Global’s overall corporate strategy of participating with leading institutions and organizations in establishing a significant presence in the GCC region and expanding the banking and financial services sector.
The new bank, which will be called BankMuscat International (BMI), has received the approval from the Bahrain Monetary Agency (“BMA”) to convert BankMuscat’s branch in Bahrain to a Bahraini locally incorporated, full commercial bank with an initial paid up capital of 20 million Bahrain dinars. This is proposed to be raised to BD50 million in 2007 through a public-share offering.
The new bank is being established to undertake expansions in the Middle East and North Africa region and Bahrain provides an ideal base for regional expansion.
Al-Ghunaim also added that in addition to BankMuscat the major shareholder, the new bank is promoted by established and prominent shareholders such as Royal Court Affairs, Oman, Premier Group, Bahrain, and Istithmar, UAE. The strength and expertise of these shareholders along with Global would be critical while exploring a variety of growth strategies to quickly expand the new bank’s presence across the region.
Al-Ghunaim also added that this transaction comes as a continuation of the second phase of Global’s strategy of expansion in the region which started with a full fledged presence in Bahrain.
Global has in the recent past as part of this expansion strategy in the GCC region acquired significant stakes in various financial services companies such as Shurooq Investment Services, United Finance Company, Jordan Trade facilities and also listed its shares on the Bahraini Stock Exchange. This is in addition to the Kuwaiti market where Global has played a major role in expanding and improving the Kuwaiti stock market acting as listing advisor for many companies and publishing accurate and detailed economic reports that span the region, stock markets and listed companies, resulting in a more mature and expanded market.
Global, based on its analysis of the banking and financial services sector believes that the MENA region offers a lot of potential opportunities for new initiatives in the banking sector and that the new bank will be ideally poised to capitalize on the same. Al-Ghunaim added that there is a definite need for a strong regional bank that understands the needs of the region as a whole and the cultural/economic sensitivities of the people across the GCC countries.
Keeping in mind the opportunities in the banking and financial services sector and also the overall strategy of Global, Al-Ghunaim indicated that this was an ideal opportunity to partner with prestigious shareholders and participate in a new bank that could provide high quality banking solutions to the current and emerging requirements of discerning customers across the region.