Dubai’s Shuaa Capital in talks to acquire Kuwait’s Amwal

Dubai’s Shuaa Capital has announced it is in discussions to acquire Kuwaiti investment bank Amwal International Investment Company.

In a bourse filing the company said it was “currently negotiating a potential acquisition of Amwal”.

“Shuaa has not yet signed any document pertaining to this transaction and will keep the market posted on developments with respect to this transaction,” the company said.

Shuaa previously acquired an 8 per cent stake in the company in July bringing its total holding to 11 per cent.

Gulf Finance Corporation owns the remaining shares.

Amwal, which had KD23.2m ($77.3m) in total assets at the end of September last year, announced that Shuaa intended to increase its stake to 75-100 per cent on Monday.

The Dubai-based investment firm has announced a series of acquisitions over the last year including Abu Dhabi Financial Group’s Integrated Capital and Integrated securities in March.

Read: Dubai’s Shuaa Capital to acquire Integrated Capital and Securities

That same month the company was reported to be in discussions to merge with Bahrain’s GFH Financial Group but this failed to materialise.

Read: Bahrain’s GFH says it may merge with Dubai’s Shuaa Capital

Shuaa reported a Dhs60m ($16.3m) profit for the first nine months of 2017 compared to a Dhs111.6m ($30.3m) loss in the same period the previous year.

Abu Dhabi Financial Group acquired a 48.36 per cent stake in Shuaa in 2016.

Read: Abu Dhabi Financial Group to acquire Shuaa Capital stake