United Gulf Bank has increased its shareholding in Fimbank to 60.61 per cent, after 115 of the bank’s shareholders – 11 per cent of the total – accepted the offer from UGB and Burgan Bank.

UGB took up the additional 30.36 per cent of the share capital from the existing shareholders. Burgan left its shareholding at the same level – 19.53 per cent – giving the two entities an aggregate shareholding of 80.14 per cent of the total issued share capital.

They offered $0.95 per share for the 90 million shares not held by them, which had a nominal value of $0.50. This represented a premium of $0.1348 over the net asset value per share.

It will probably come as a relief to the remaining shareholders – now in the minority – that Burgan and UGB opted to maintain the listing status. Fimbank has already asked the listing authority to approve the listing since the public shareholding has now fallen below 25 per cent of the total issued share capital.

Burgan is rated BBB+ by Standard & Poor’s and has majority stakes in banks in Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Tunisia and Turkey. It is quoted on the Kuwait Stock Exchange, with a market capitalisation of around $3.2 billion.

UGB is majority owned by Kipco and is rated BBB by Capital Intelligence. It is quoted on the Bahrain Bourse, with a market capitalisation of around $400 million.

Kipco describes itself as ‘’one of the largest holding companies in the Middle East and North Africa, with consolidated assets of $26 billion”. Burgan and UGB represent Kipco’s largest and third largest investments.

The Fimbank board of directors concluded last year that the acquisition of a controlling interest by UGB and Burgan would be beneficial to the bank, would create a number of opportunities, and would be favourable and conducive to the growth of the bank and the group as a whole.