Saudi Arabia’s largest lender by assets National Commercial Bank (NCB) is weighing a deal to acquire rival bank Samba Financial Group.
The discussions regarding a merger between both the lenders are currently underway, Bloomberg reported citing sources familiar with the matter.
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According to the report, the merger plans could be announced as early as the next few days.
However, a deal may or may not come to fruition, the report added.
The current market value of Samba Financial is $13bn.
NCB’s acquisition of Samba Financial could be the biggest banking takeover in the country, according to Bloomberg.
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By GlobalDataThe combined entity upon a successful deal closing will have about $210bn in total assets.
The potential deal comes more than six months after NCB scrapped the merger agreement with Riyad Bank, which could create a bank with $200bn in assets.
Saudi’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF) is the largest shareholder in NCB and Samba.
PIF owns 44% stakes in NCB and 23% in Samba. Lately, PIF has been mulling plans to merge other institutions to boost the competition in the banking sector of Saudi Arabia.
There are nearly 30 local and international banks in the country serving over 30 million customers.
