Kuwait’s CBK Cuts Stake In Boubyan Bank To 17.7%

Commercial Bank of Kuwait (CBK) has cut its stake in Boubyan Bank to 17.7 per cent from the 19.9 per cent which it held at its last filing in September, Kuwait Stock Exchange data showed on Tuesday.

The stake dropped to 17.7 per cent on Monday, the data showed.

Trade in Boubyan shares was extremely heavy on Tuesday, with more than 94 million shares, or 4.8 per cent of the bank’s outstanding shares, changing hands by early afternoon. The stock price was up 1.25 per cent at 0.405 dinar.

National Bank of Kuwait, the country’s biggest bank, owns 58 per cent of Boubyan, according to Thomson Reuters data.

The identity of the buyer of CBK’s holding in Boubyan was not immediately clear; spokesmen at both CBK and Boubyan could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

A Kuwaiti newspaper, quoting unnamed sources, reported earlier this month that CBK was selling some of it stake in Boubyan – bonus shares it had received in past years – through the market. It said CBK did not plan to divest all of its stake.

Islamic investment firm Investment Dar has been embroiled in litigation over a stake in Boubyan which it sold to CBK in 2008, with the right to buy it back.

Investment Dar, which hopes to sell the stake to repay creditors, said in a bourse filing last month that Kuwait’s Court of Appeal had referred the case to the Court of First Instance in the Commercial Courts. It did not elaborate.