DUBAI, (Reuters) – National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) said it is still interested in buying ABN Amro’s stake in Saudi Hollandi Bank as the Gulf’s third-largest lender looks to the enter the kingdom.
“We would be interested to buy ABN Amro’s shares,” George Nasra, chief executive of NBK’s investment banking unit said at the Reuters Middle East Investment Summit in Dubai on Sunday.
A bid to buy the Dutch bank’s 40 percent stake in the Saudi lender is “still with them,” Nasra said, declining to give further details.
Barclays Plc said earlier this month it was in exclusive talks with ABN Amro to buy the Amsterdam, Netherlands-based lender.
NBK Chief Executive Ibrahim Dabdoub said in November ABN had invited the Gulf’s third-largest lender by market value to bid for the stake, saying Standard Chartered Plc had also put in an offer.