HSBC Holdings, through its subsidiary HSBC Holding BV (HHBV), has increased its stake in Saudi British Bank (SABB) in an accelerated book-building process.
According to a term sheet, a total of 116 million shares were placed in the share offering by NatWest Markets and Banco Santander.
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This represents a combined 5.6% of SABB shares put up for exchange, which is worth nearly $680m.
HSBC already had a 29.2% shareholding in SABB. By acquiring additional shares on sale, it increased stake in SABB to 31%.
Citing Refinitiv data, Reuters reported that HSBC intended to purchase 36.986 million shares.
HSBC Saudi Arabia unit is carried out the transaction on behalf of HHBV.
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By GlobalDataMoreover, an investment firm named Olayan Saudi Investment Company also said it wants to buy additional 42.37 million shares, Reuters’ report added.
Olayan is also an existing shareholder in the Saudi lender owning nearly 18.3% stake.
However, the changes in Olayan’s shareholding in SABB following the share purchase was not revealed.
According to the term sheet, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs were the joint bookrunners for the share sale.
In September 2020, Natwest and Banco Santander sold a combined 1.5% stake in SABB, which was also handled by these two banks, Reuters said.
Back in 2018, SABB merged with its smaller rival Alawwal Bank to create the third-largest bank in the Kingdom.
