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Dubai-listed Al Ansari Financial Services (AAFS) will acquire Bahrain’s BFC Group Holdings WLL (BFCGH) for $200 million, to become the largest remittance and exchange provider in the GCC.
Al Ansari, which is the parent company of Al Ansari Exchange, said the acquisition will take its number of branches to 410 across the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and India, with employees increasing by 25% to 6,000.
The company plans to secure financing for the acquisition following the signing of a sales and purchase agreement, according to a Dubai Financial Market (DFM) disclosure, with the transaction to be completed in the first quarter of 2025.
The consolidated revenues of AAFS and BFCGH for the full year 2023 amounted to approximately $385 million, a 22% increase on AAFS’s reported revenue.
BFCGH, established in 1917, was the first foreign exchange company and financial services institution in Bahrain and the GCC, the disclosure said.
(Writing by Imogen Lillywhite; editing by Seban Scaria)
