Oman’s Bank Muscat $251m Rights Issue 128% Covered

Bank Muscat, Oman’s largest lender by market value, saw its OMR96.7 million ($251.2 million) rights issue 127.5 per cent covered by investors, the bank said in a bourse filing on Monday.

The lender received bids worth OMR123.3 million from 1,675 investors for the share sale, which took place between July 9-23 and was used to raise capital to fund credit growth and its upcoming venture into Islamic finance.

The issue consisted of 226.5 million shares offered at OMR0.427 per share, around a 25-per cent discount to the share price when the deal was announced at the end of June.

Shares in Bank Muscat closed on Sunday up 0.2 per cent at OMR0.53, down 17.8 per cent year-to-date.

Following the rights issue, the issued and paid-up capital will be 2,038,510,684 shares with a nominal value of OMR0.1 each, the statement said.

Bank Muscat said in December it would open an Islamic banking window after regulatory changes in the sultanate permitted sharia-compliant finance for the first time.

Bank Muscat posted a 19-per cent increase in second-quarter net profit last month, helped by strong lending growth in the first half of the year.