Saudi's Samba-NCB new entity to finance development projects: Chairman

The estimated saving of SR800 million ($213 million) a year this will bring is mainly due to reducing the cost of technology systems in the two banks, Samba Chairman Ammar Alkhudairy told Al Arabiya on Wednesday.

A large part of this budget will be used to finance development projects and companies that contribute to these operations, he said.

AlKhudairy said that the bank would open a branch soon in London. He said that the new entity would focus on the local market, but at the same time look to expand in a number of countries, mostly those with a large trade exchange with the Kingdom.

The Samba chairman said that since there were branches of NCB and Samba only several meters apart, one branch would be closed and transferred to a new location to serve customers. There might be a need to increase the number of branches, he said.

No employees would be dismissed as a result of the merger, he said.

Samba and NCB banks rank first and second in the investment banking sector, and the merger will enable the new entity to cater to the Kingdom’s future needs. It will create a strong financial entity in the region, said Alkhudairy, predicting that customer accounts will be merged between Samba and NCB banks in April.

Alkhudairy said that the merger plan was in the advanced stages of completion. It would be implemented from April so that the merger would be finalized from the client’s perspective.

He predicted that the merger would encourage other banks to move to private mergers if the transaction was successful.