KUWAIT, Sept 25 (KUNA) -- Kuwait Finance House (KFH) announced here on Sunday its branch in the Kingdom of Bahrain (KFH-Bahrain) is leading preparations for the merger of three Islamic banks in Bahrain.
The possible merger will lead to the emergence of one of the biggest Islamic Sharia-compliant banking entities as a nucleus for even larger mergers in the region, KFH CEO and Managing Director of KFH-Bahrain Abdul-Hakim Al-Khayat said.
The potential entity will have a capital of USD 400 million and asset base valued at USD 500 million, a KFH statement quoted Al-Khayat as saying.
He predicts the merger talks will take six to nine months to complete, affirming that the three involved banks are interested in seeing the process succeed at an early date.
The role of KFH-Bahrain in the process is to coordinate and provide consultancy to the three banks thanks to its close ties with them and its long experience in Islamic banking on regional and international scales. (end) mka.tb.gb KUNA 252140 Sep 11NNNN