Saudi bank merger outlook to be clear by end-Q1
Summary
SABB, 40 percent owned by HSBC Holdings, and Alawwal, 40 percent owned by Royal Bank of Scotland, said in April that they had agreed to start merger talks, but progress has been slow. Kholifey had told Al Arabiya in October the outlook for the merger would be clear by the end of 2017, but on Thursday, he said the banks needed more time to finalise their discussions. "We expect things to become clear before the end of the first quarter of 2018," Kholifey said. Earlier this month, sources told Reuters the merger had been delayed but not derailed in part because the Saudi regulatory environment for bank acquisitions was relatively untested. For all the latest banking and finance news from the UAE and Gulf countries, follow us on Twitter and Linkedin , like us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube page, which is updated daily.