The Board of Director of Crescent Commercial Bank Limited (CresBank) on Friday announced acceptance of a bid from a premier Saudi financial institution to invest Rs 6 billion (around $100 million), and rejected the offer of Rs 2.8 billion from a consortium led by former Union Bank boss, Shaukat Tarin.
According to sources, the said offer is from Saudi American Bank (Samba) Riyadh. Samba was originally a joint venture between Saudi business groups and Citibank. But Citibank pulled out its stakes and gave the management in 2003, after filing a trillion dollars legal case due to terrorist attack on September 11, 2001.
Now, 54 percent stakes are owned by the Saudi Government, through its various pension funds and other state institutions. Prince Waleed Bin Talal has less than 10 percent stake in Samba.
Samba operations are primarily confined to Saudi Arabia, and it is now attempting to break out into a regional bank. With 'Return on Equity' of 45 percent, the investors get the capital investment back in two years.
After the injection of Rs 6 billion in CresBank, its paid up capital would rise to Rs 8 billion.
Sources said that for no fault the commercial bank had to face advised market conditions due to the common group holding with Crescent Standard Bank Limited (now taken over by SECP). As a result, its deposits have struck from Rs 7.5 billion to Rs 3.0 billion.
Samba is expected to pour its money through a right issue, which will reduce the Crescent group shareholding from 38 percent to less than 10 percent, and give management control to the Saudi entity.
The Board of Crescent Commercial Bank Ltd (CCBL), in its 31st meeting held on November 17, 2006, after deliberating over definitive investment propositions from a number of potential investors, approved an investment of Rs 6.0 billion into the bank from a premier financial institution from Saudi Arabia. This investment is subject to the appropriate regulatory approvals and execution of definitive agreements.
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