JEDDAH, 2 February 2006 — The Saudi Capital Market Authority (CMA) on Tuesday approved requests from three Saudi banks to increase their capital by issuing bonus shares. The three banks are the Arab National Bank, Banque Saudi Fransi and The Saudi Investment Bank.
CMA approved Arab National Bank’s request to raise its capital from SR2.5 billion ($660 million) to SR3.25 billion ($866 million) by issuing three bonus shares for every ten outstanding shares. The bonus is limited to registered shareholders who owned bank shares at the end of share trading on the day when the bank’s general assembly held its meeting. The bank will make the increase by transferring SR750 million ($200million) from its general reserves into shareholders’ equity accounts. After the capital increase, the number of bank shares will increase from 50 million to 65 million shares.
Banque Saudi Fransi also got CMA’s approval to increase its capital from SR2.25 billion ($600 million) to SR3.375 billion ($900 million) by issuing one bonus share for every two outstanding shares. The bank will accomplish this by transferring SR1125 million ($300 million) from its general reserves into its shareholders’ equity accounts. The shares will increase after issuing the bonus shares from 45 million to 67.5 million shares. The bonus is limited to registered shareholders who owned shares at the end of share trading on the day when the bank’s general assembly held its meeting.
CMA has also approved The Saudi Investment Bank’s request to increase its capital from SR1.718 billion ($458 million) to SR2.4 billion ($640 million) by issuing one bonus share for every 2.5 outstanding shares of the bank. The total number of the bank’s shares will increase from 34.375 million shares to 48.125 million. The capital increase will be paid from the bank profit reserves accounts. As in the other two banks, the bonus is limited to registered shareholders who owned the banks’ shares at the end of share trading on the day when the bank’s general assembly held its meeting.
