Wednesday, Aug 17, 2011

(This story was originally published Tuesday)

BEIRUT (Zawya Dow Jones)--Al Salam Bank-Bahrain and Bahrain Islamic Bank, or BisB, have appointed KPMG Fakhro as the adviser on their planned merger, Al Salam Bank-Bahrain said Tuesday.

The move comes after the two shariah-compliant banks received approval to merge from Bahrain's central bank, Al Salam said in a statement on the Bahraini bourse's website.

BisB had total assets of 864.2 million Bahraini dinars ($2.29 billion) at the end of June, while Al Salam's total assets stood at BHD828.3 million, according to Zawya.com data.

BisB's shares closed up 2.1% at BHD0.099 and Al Salam's shares ended flat at BHD0.050 in an lower overall market Tuesday.

-By Shikrallah Nakhoul, Zawya Dow Jones; +961 1 985757; shikrallah@zawya.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

17-08-11 0358GMT