Samba Financial Group

History

2020: Merge to National Commercial Bank (NCB)

On October 12, 2020 it became known of merge of the largest banks in Saudi Arabia. Under the terms of the agreement, National Commercial Bank (NCB) will purchase Samba Financial Group for 55.7 billion rials (nearly $15 billion). In terms of one stock of the sold credit institution the cost of the transaction is 28.45 rials ($7.58).

After the closing of the transaction planned for the first half of 2021, shareholders of NCB will own 67.4% of the united company, shareholders of Samba — 32.6%. The chairman of the board of directors of NBC Said Al Ghamdi will become the managing director of new group, and the current chairman of the board of Samba Ammar Al Hudayri will head the united bank.

According to Bloomberg, merge of NCB and Samba Financial Group is the main point of the national program "Vision of 2030". In its framework Saudi Arabia intends to perform multi-billion investments worldwide, to reduce dependence of the kingdom on oil, to diversify economy and also to develop health care, infrastructure, education, tourism, etc. This strategy was announced by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Muhammad bin Salman Al Saod in 2016.

National Commercial Bank (NCB) and Samba Financial Group announced the largest banks of Saudi Arabia merge

According to experts, consolidation of the banking sector is not a current problem for Saudi Arabia — by October, 2020 in the country less than 30 local and foreign banks while in the neighboring UAE — about 50 banks on less than 10 million people work with the population of 33 million people.

Consolidation never was the focus of attention of the Saudi banks, taking into account the fact that number of departments per capita one of the lowest in Council of cooperation of the states of the Persian Gulf. Real need of consolidation is limited as it is not such crowded market, as in the UAE — the analyst of Shuaa Capital PSC financial company Aarti Chandrasekaran notes.[1]

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