Investment Dar may sell stake in Syrian bank

Kuwaiti Islamic firm Investment Dar said on Sunday it was considering selling its stake in Syrian Islamic lender Cham Bank but had reached no deal yet. An unsourced report in Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai said the firm had agreed to sell its 12.5 per cent stake in the Syrian lender to Commercial Bank of Kuwait (CBK), the country's fourth-largest lender by market value, which offered 700 lira ($15.32) per share for the stake.

But Investment Dar said in a statement on the bourse website: "The issue is still in the process of being studied, submitting requests to regulatory bodies and approval of the firm's board." It gave no more details.

Kuwait's bourse said it would resume trading in shares of Dar, which it had halted earlier pending clarification of the report.

The newspaper also said Dar made KWD2 million (Dh27.5m) profit on the sale and would book the gain in Q2. CBK said in March it plans to raise its stake in Cham Bank to 30 per cent. CBK has already raised its stake to 27 per cent by buying shares from Syrian investors, the report said.

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