TRIPOLI, Feb 13, 2008 (AFP) - Arab Bank has won a tender for 19 percent of the capital of Libya's Al-Wahda bank for 210 million euros (305 million dollars), a source at Rothschild bank in charge of the privatisation said on Wednesday.
Three other foreign banks had been left in competition after the troubled Societe Generale of France pulled out at the last minute for "technical reasons".
Its withdrawal followed its exposure in the subprime crisis and the loss of seven billion euros blamed by Societe Generale on rogue trader Jerome Kerviel.
The three banks left in the bid apart from Amman-based Arab Bank were: Italy's Intesa Sanpaolo, the Bahrain-based Arab Banking Corporation and Morocco's Attijariwafa Bank.
The powerful Libyan Fund for Social and Economic Development held 73 percent of Al-Wahda Bank from which the 19 percent was being transferred.
Winning the tender gives the Arab Bank the possibility of lifting its participation to 51 percent in the medium term, according to the Central Bank of Libya.
Al-Wahda is Libya's fifth biggest bank in terms of assets, at 1.7 billion euros. It has 20 percent of the local market and 71 agencies throughout the North African country.
Last September, in another banking privatisation, the French bank BNP Paribas took over 19 percent of Libya's Sahara Bank.
ila/jfb/hc
Libya-Jordan-bank-economy
