Merger of Emirates and Sudan Bank in and with Bank of Khartoum approved

Khartoum, Dec. 13 (SUNA) – The Emirates and Sudan Bank and Bank of Khartoum respective extraordinary shareholders’ general meetings held at the Friendship Hall Tuesday endorsed the merger of Emirates and Sudan Bank in and with Bank of Khartoum. The endorsement came after long discussion of the merger scheme that had been prepared by the international expert house, Delwette with the participation of local and international legal counsels and the joint executive committee of the two banks. At the end of the meeting, shareholders of both banks hailed the merger step since it will achieve great benefit to the national Sudanese economy and the banking sector generally. The respective board of directors of the two banks will meet latter on to endorse the extraordinary shareholders general meetings’ resolutions and hence submit the endorsement resolutions to the Bank of Sudan for final approval of the merger. The new entity would retain the name of Bank of Khartoum and actual execution is scheduled to take place during the first half of the month of January 2008. “Endorsement by the shareholders’ general meetings of the merger of the two banks would pave the way for the creation of the largest banking entity in the Sudan” said Mohamed Salah El Dein, Bank of Khartoum general manager. “The merged entity would be financially stronger due to the large capital base, something that will support growth in the future,” he said. He added that shareholders equity will stand at SDG 550m, and asset base at SDG 2.150 b. Capital adequacy ratio will increase from 17.3% to 28.6%, with substantial improvement in the liquidity position. On his part, Mr. Mohammed Hassanein, Emirates and Sudan Bank’s general manager said “The merger will allow for the creation of relationship with new groups of stakeholders, including regional ones, which would ease regional investments in the future and at the same time enrich the new bank generally through the merger of expertise with varying backgrounds. “In addition, the new bank will benefit from the focusing of Emirates and Sudan Bank on corporate banking and Bank of Khartoum on retail banking. This would enhance such services through centralization. Mr. Fadi Faqi, Bank of Khartoum’s chief operation officer said that the proposed structure would result in the execution of the merger process efficiently with minimum requirements on the ground of the valuation of management presumptions and approval that has been based on the actual position as at September 2007. According to the actual financial valuation carried out by Delwette, the subsequent negotiations resulted in a 50 % 50 shareholding for each bank after merger.