Saudi banks NCB, Riyad end merger talks

Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank (NCB) and Riyad Bank have ended their merger talks.

The two banks did not give a reason for discontinuing the talks in separate filings on the Saudi stock exchange on Monday (Dec 16).

“The board of directors of National Commercial Bank and Riyad Bank have agreed to end the preliminary discussions and to not continue studying the merger of the two banks,” said their statements.

NCB is Saudi Arabia’s largest bank by assets. It held 498.05 billion riyals ($132.8 billion) in assets as at September 30.

It announced in December last year it was negotiating the potential merger with smaller rival Riyad Bank that posted assets of 250.27 billion riyals ($66.74 billion) at the end of September.

($1 = 3.75 Saudi riyals)

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