JEDDAH, 14 June 2005 — The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) announced yesterday that it had purchased J.P. Morgan’s 5.3 percent stake in Bahrain-based Gulf International Bank (GIB), the largest regional bank in the GCC.
Dr. Muhammed Al-Jasser, deputy governor of SAMA, said the deal with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. would increase SAMA’s share in the bank to 27.5 percent from 22.2 percent stake, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported. GIB has assets worth more than $20 billion in excess of $15 billion of clients’ assets under management.
“SAMA is pleased to acquire J.P. Morgan’s stake in GIB, which is a major bank in the Gulf Cooperation Council region with a strong merchant banking franchise. GIB already has a banking license and branches in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This transaction was necessitated by the granting of a banking license to J.P. Morgan for establishing a branch in the Kingdom,” Al-Jasser said
Gaby Abdelnour, managing director at J.P. Morgan, said: “As one of three global banks recently granted a license to open a Saudi Arabian branch, we decided to sell our stake in Gulf International Bank to eliminate the potential for any conflicts of interest between our business and that of GIB. We remain highly confident in GIB’s business strategy and management, and look forward to increasing our commitment to Saudi clients through our new branch.”
