AMMAN, 31 March 2007 — The listing of Jordan’s Arab Bank stock on the Abu Dhabi exchange is due to be “finalized” in April, the bank’s board Chairman Abdul Hamid Shoman said yesterday.
“The procedures for listing the Arab Bank on the Dubai exchange will be finished in April after addressing all outstanding technical and regulatory issues between the Amman and Dubai stock exchanges,” Shoman said during the bank’s annual shareholders meeting.
Shoman attributed the deadlock in negotiations between the Arab Bank and Emaar Properties, for the sale of 10 percent of the bank’s shares to the UAE real estate conglomerate, to differences between the two sides regarding the price of the deal. “The bank is demanding a price ranging between 30 and 35 Jordanian dinars ($42-$50). The Arab Bank closed week on Thursday at 24.55 dinars.
The Arab Bank announced earlier this year that it was entering into talks with Emaar as a prospective “strategic partner” to sell it a 10-percent stake. “Entering into partnership with Emaar, one of the Arab world’s largest groups, gives the Arab Bank’s operations an added value,” Shoman said. The Arab Bank meeting approved yesterday the distribution of a 25 percent dividend, he added. The Arab Bank Group posted a 31.6 percent increase in net earnings in 2006, to 263.3 million dinars.