RIYADH, 14 June 2007 — A senior official of the Saudi Hollandi Bank has denied the reports that ABN Amro Bank, which ranks eighth in Europe and 13th in the world based on total assets, is looking to sell its 40 percent stake in Saudi Hollandi Bank to other banks. Farid Zaouk, secretary of the SHB board of directors and legal advisor, told Arab News here yesterday that the reports are “not true, misleading and based on market rumors.”
Zaouk was commenting on the reports published by a local Arabic daily in which SHB Chairman Suleiman Al-Suhaimi was quoted yesterday as saying that “the Dutch investors are looking to sell their stake to other banks.” The board secretary said that “nothing of this sort is happening” and hence the news that the SHB’s main shareholder was seeking to sell its $1.1 billion stake based on Hollandi’s closing share price is not true.
Zaouk made it categorically clear that “ABN Amro holds 40 percent stake in the SHB and the rumor of the sale of stake has been there for the last one year.” Asked about the reasons, which become the source of this rumor, another banking official, who refused to be named said, “this has been a rumor quite some time. How can it be possible now when ABN itself is in the midst of a takeover tussle?”
In fact, a consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland has trumped an offer by Britain’s Barclays in a battle for the world’s largest bank takeover. And, only a couple of days back, ABN Amro has won the right to acquire the branch network of Taitung Business Bank in Taiwan in a government auction. The acquisition will significantly strengthen ABN Amro’s presence in that country’s banking domain. The SHB, on the other hand, is strongly placed both in terms of capital and operations.
This year, SHB is celebrating its 80th year in the Kingdom, making it the oldest bank in the country. In April, the bank launched its new corporate logo and inaugurated its new landmark regional office building in Jeddah. SHB currently operates 41 branches and 167 ATMs distributed across the Kingdom. SHB is also listed on the Saudi Stock Exchange and has 1,462 employees, of which 85.8 percent are Saudi nationals.
The Dutch bank ABN Amro Bank NV, which founded SHB, owns 40 percent of its stock with the remainder being owned by Saudi investors. SHB is the first bank in the Kingdom, which was founded way back in 1926 as the Netherlands Trading Society. The bank was originally established with one office in Jeddah to serve the pilgrims from the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). For some time, as the only operating bank, the SHB also served as the Kingdom’s Central Bank, maintaining the gold stock of the country and processing the first oil-related transactions.
Today, SHB is a Saudi joint stock company. Only a few days back, SHB and ABN closed the largest ever greenfield project financing for SABIC’s $5 billion subsidiary Yanbu National Petrochemicals Company (Yansab). ABN Amro is a prominent international bank with its financial history going back to 1824.
ABN Amro, at the moment, ranks eighth in Europe and 13th in the world based on total assets, with more than 4,500 branches in 53 countries, a staff of more than 105,000 full-time equivalents and total assets of 987 billion euros as of Dec. 31, 2006.
