Although Central Bank of Qatar (CBQ) set the deadline requiring the country’s conventional banks which have opened Islamic banking windows to close them down to be Dec. 31, 2011, it has passed almost without being noticed.
Some Islamic bankers are now …
Qatar-based Al khaliji bank in association with its subsidiary Al Khaliji France acted as mandated lead arranger on the recently signed 1.14bn UAE dirham ($310mn) amortising term facility for the UAE-based Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) Group.
The merger proposal between IBQ and al khaliji banks has reached a new stage following the latter’s support to the idea, al khaliji chairman and managing director Sheikh Hamad bin Faisal bin Thani al-Thani has said.
On why the two banks are considering a merger, Sheikh Hamad bin Faisal bin Thani al-Thani said: “The Qatar market is small and there are too many banks here… that’s why we want to merge. We have more banks and branches per capita in Qatar than in any other Gulf States.
“Having said that, I must tell you we have not reached a stage where we can say we are merging. We are exploring, talking and looking at the possibilities.
“But if the merger takes place, the new entity will be the third or fourth largest bank in Qatar.”
Earlier, al khaliji’s board of directors has approved the “initiation of merger talks” with IBQ. The decision was made during a meeting of al khaliji’s board of directors in Doha recently.
Al khaliji is Qatar’s second largest retail bank by paid-up capital and a member of the Qatar Exchange 20 Index with approximately QR17.5bn in total assets and QR9.2bn in customer deposits.
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