HUNT FOR DEALS
Higher oil prices due to Russia's war on Ukraine fuelled an
economic boom in the Gulf region last year, with sovereign
wealth funds and banks - flush with cash - hunting for
opportunistic deals amid a weakened global outlook.
In January, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) increased its
stake in Credit Suisse to 6.8% and is its second biggest
shareholder. Saudi National Bank is almost 40% owned by the
Public Investment Fund, the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund.
Diego Lopez, managing director of Global SWF, said Gulf
sovereign wealth funds acted as white knights during the 2008
financial crisis, and could do so again, deploying their
surpluses.
"2008 saw many losers among SWFs but also some winners - and
in that vein, SNB’s and QIA’s losses will not prevent other Gulf
investors from pursuing other opportunities," he said.
First Abu Dhabi Bank , the United Arab Emirates'
biggest lender, in January said it had considered a bid for
London-listed Standard Chartered but was no longer
doing so. It may well revive its plans.
"It’s possible that the turmoil in western banks may create
attractive entry points for well-capitalised Gulf banks
considering acquisitions, as FAB had been for Standard
Chartered," Justin Alexander, Director of Khalij Economics and
GCC analyst for GlobalSource Partners, said.
($1 = 3.7560 riyals)
($1 = 0.9287 Swiss francs)
(Additional reporting by Yousef Saba in Dubai and Andrew Mills
in Doha; Editing by David Goodman and Bill Berkrot)
(Adds analyst quotes, context)
By Rachna Uppal
DUBAI, March 20 (Reuters) - Saudi National Bank , the largest shareholder in Credit Suisse ,
said on Monday its strategy will be unaffected by reduced
valuation on its investment in the Swiss bank after its takeover
by rival UBS .
The Saudi lender, the kingdom's largest by assets, acquired
almost 9.9% of Credit Suisse for 5.5 billion riyals ($1.46
billion) last November, but is now sitting on a loss of roughly
$1.17 billion on its investment, Reuters calculations showed.
"Changes in the valuation of SNB's investment in Credit
Suisse have no impact on SNB's growth plans and forward-looking
2023 guidance," Saudi National Bank said in a bourse filing on
Monday.
The investment in Credit Suisse formed less than 0.5% of the
Saudi lender's total assets of more than 945 billion riyals as
of last December, and there is no expected impact on
profitability, the statement said.
Swiss authorities had announced on Sunday that UBS would
acquire its rival for $3.23 billion as part of a wider
state-backed rescue plan.
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