Oger Middle East Holding Company, owned by the Hariri family, sold its share in the Arab Bank on Wednesday. The company’s share, which amounted to about 20% of the bank’s shares, was sold to a group of Jordanian and Arab investors, including Sabih El-Masry, the current chairperson of the board of directors of the bank, who led the negotiations with the Hariri family.
According to sources, the Hariri family’s share, which amounts to 127,096,290 shares, was sold to around 40 investors for $1.12bn.
By completing this deal, the largest significant stake in Arab Bank which has been in the hands of the Hariri family for more than a decade, has now been sold to a group of investors, of which 70% are Jordanians.
According to analysts, the investment in the shares of Arab Bank was and remains one of the most prominent strategic investments in the banking sector in Jordan and the Arab region, especially since Arab Bank is considered one of the oldest and most prevalent Arab banks on the global level and is characterised by the diversity of its revenues.
The Arab Bank Group has recently announced the results of its work for 2016 and has seen a significant growth of 20% in profits compared to 2015.The Group’s profit after taxes and allocations reached $533m, while the group’s profit before taxes amounted to $ 791m.
