 "banks, bank rate cuts, lending rates, deposits, savings, investment, schemes, shares, insurance")
Saudi Arabia's National Commercial Bank said Sunday it will purchase rival lender Samba Financial Group in a deal valued at $14.8 billion, creating what would become the kingdom's largest bank.
The bank will control some $223 billion in assets and a market capitalisation of $46 billion after the merger wins regulatory approvals and is completed, National Commercial Bank said in a filing on Riyadh's Tadawul stock market announcing the deal.
The new bank will control a quarter of all banking in the kingdom, it said.
NCB will pay Samba a premium of 3.5 per cent on the closing price of its stock Thursday
