Bahrain-based Arab Banking Corporation, the kingdom's second-largest lender, said it is in talks to buy the Egyptian unit of Lebanon’s Blom Bank.
"Discussions are at a preliminary stage, but there is no certainty that any transaction will be completed," Bank ABC said in a regulatory filing to the Bahrain bourse, where its shares trade.
“Bank ABC has a stated intention and strategy to consider inorganic growth opportunities and routinely evaluates such matters, and a further announcement will only be made if there is a material development.”
Last month, Emirates NBD, Dubai’s largest lender by assets, said it is also in talks to buy Blom Bank’s subsidiary in Egypt.
In May, First Abu Dhabi Bank, the UAE's largest lender by assets, mutually agreed to suspend talks to buy the Egyptian subsidiary of Lebanon's Bank Audi due to "unprecedented circumstances and the uncertain outlook relating to the Covid-19 pandemic".
Blom Bank, like other Lebanese lenders, needs to fulfill a requirement from Lebanon's central bank to increase its equity. The regulator issued the requirement last November as Lebanon faces its worst economic crisis in three decades. Lenders who are unable to raise their capital by 20 per cent by the end of February 2021 will have to get out of the market.
Blom Bank's 2019 annual profit of declined 77 per cent year-on-year as it booked impairments of 493 billion Lebanese pounds ($327 million or Dh1.2bn at the official exchange rate) to cover losses.
Reuters reported the sale of Blom's Egyptian unit could raise as much as $300m for the Lebanese lender. Blom Bank Egypt operates 39 branches in the North African country.
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hall of shame
SUNDERLAND 2002-03
No one has ended a Premier League season quite like Sunderland. They lost each of their final 15 games, taking no points after January. They ended up with 19 in total, sacking managers Peter Reid and Howard Wilkinson and losing 3-1 to Charlton when they scored three own goals in eight minutes.
SUNDERLAND 2005-06
Until Derby came along, Sunderland’s total of 15 points was the Premier League’s record low. They made it until May and their final home game before winning at the Stadium of Light while they lost a joint record 29 of their 38 league games.
HUDDERSFIELD 2018-19
Joined Derby as the only team to be relegated in March. No striker scored until January, while only two players got more assists than goalkeeper Jonas Lossl. The mid-season appointment Jan Siewert was to end his time as Huddersfield manager with a 5.3 per cent win rate.
ASTON VILLA 2015-16
Perhaps the most inexplicably bad season, considering they signed Idrissa Gueye and Adama Traore and still only got 17 points. Villa won their first league game, but none of the next 19. They ended an abominable campaign by taking one point from the last 39 available.
FULHAM 2018-19
Terrible in different ways. Fulham’s total of 26 points is not among the lowest ever but they contrived to get relegated after spending over £100 million (Dh457m) in the transfer market. Much of it went on defenders but they only kept two clean sheets in their first 33 games.
LA LIGA: Sporting Gijon, 13 points in 1997-98.
BUNDESLIGA: Tasmania Berlin, 10 points in 1965-66
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Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
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Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
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