Dubai’s Emaar, Al Salam Bk buy Sudan El Nilein Bk stake
Oct 19, 2006 (BEIRUT) — Dubai’s Emaar Properties and Al Salam Bank of Sudan have agreed to acquire a 60% stake in Sudan’s El Nilein Industrial Development Bank for $80 million, a Sudanese central bank official said Thursday.
“The two entities will sign the deal after Ramadan whereby they will disburse $40 million in cash and the rest will be paid later to restructure the bank’s debts,” the central bank’s legal department head, Othman Mahjoub, told Zawya Dow Jones.
An official with government-owned El Nilein, who declined to be named, said several Gulf and Sudanese companies and banks had competed for the acquisition, but he declined to disclose the competitors’ names.
The deal underlines continuing interest from Gulf investors, despite continuing international pressure for Sudan to accept U.N. intervention in the war-torn western region of Darfur.
Other major Gulf investors into Sudan include: Kuwaiti telecoms giant Mobile Telecommunications Co., Dubai Islamic Bank’s 60% stake in Bank of Khartoum, Dubai-based Thani Corp. in the oil sector, and Khaled Xenel from Saudi-based Xenel Industries in real estate.
The central bank and El Nilein officials confirmed that Al Salam Bank, not Amlak Finance as another government banker had said Monday, joined real estate giant Emaar in the consortium to buy the controlling stake in El Nilein.
Emaar Chairman Mohammed Alabbar also chairs Al Salam Bank of Sudan and Al Salam Bank of Bahrain.
Emaar weren’t available to comment.
Thursday, Amlak Finance in a statement to the Dubai Financial Market denied U.A.E. media reports that the mortgage provider had bought a stake in the bank.
Amlak Finance, 45% owned by Emaar, owns a 3.75% stake of Al Salam Bank of Sudan, an Islamic commercial and private bank listed on Khartoum stock exchange.
Other Gulf and Sudanese investors are also bank shareholders, such as Kuwait’s Global Investment House and the Khartoum governorate, which each own 5% of the bank.
Sudan’s Al Salam owns 2% of Al Salam Bank – Bahrain, in which Amlak also holds a 5% stake.
There are historic ties between the U.A.E. and El Nilein, which was the first Sudanese bank to expand internationally, opening in 1976 a foreign branch in Abu Dhabi, the U.A.E.’s capital.
(Dow Jones)