Kuwait's Burgan Bank Group opens rights offering

KUWAIT: Burgan Bank, Kuwait’s second largest conventional bank by assets, announced yesterday that it commenced its Capital Rights Offering process to raise up to KD 62.55 million of additional capital. The subscription period will end on the 10th of October 2018.

The bank said that the Rights Offering consists of the issuance of 240,581,530 ordinary shares at an offer price of KD 0.260 per share which includes a share premium of KD 0.160 and represents an increase in the total number of issued shares from 2,259,418,470 shares to2,500,000,000 shares, and an increase of 10.6 percent in the existing issued share capital of the bank.

The net proceeds of the Rights Offering will be used to improve the bank’s capital adequacy ratio under Basel III framework, and leveraging the Bank’s business model for general business purposes. As of 30th June, 2018 Burgan Bank’s Core Equity Tier 1 Ratio (CET1) reached 11.0 percent and Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) reached 16.6 percent.

Majed Essa Al-Ajeel, Chairman of the board of Burgan Bank Group said: “We achieved the defined goals in optimizing the usage of the Bank capital which had helped the Bank to deliver good results that are ahead of our target. Now we see the right moment to raise capital so we can enhance the Bank’s capital levels and pursue our strong business pipeline with a focus on prudence and selective growth.”

“On behalf of the Board, I take this opportunity to thank our customers and shareholders for their confidence in our capabilities and their continued support and commitment,” concluded Al-Ajeel.

Burgan Bank Group encompass operations in Kuwait, and its share from its regional subsidiaries, namely Burgan Bank – Turkey, Gulf Bank Algeria, Bank of Baghdad, Tunis International Bank, possessing one of the largest regional branch networks with 169 branches across Kuwait, Turkey, Algeria, Iraq, Tunis, Lebanon and representative office in Dubai-United Arab Emirates.