Saudi Arabia’s NCB Plans Capital Hike Before IPO

National Commercial Bank, Saudi Arabia’s biggest bank by assets, plans to boost its capital by 5 billion riyals ($1.3 billion) through conversion of its retained earnings into capital, it said in an emailed statement on Tuesday.

The announcement comes one month after the Saudi government said it planned to float 15 per cent of the state-owned bank on the stock exchange later this year in an initial public offer, the kingdom’s first bank IPO since 2008.

Mansour al-Maiman, secretary-general of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and chairman of NCB’s board, said in Tuesday’s statement that shareholders had approved the plan to increase the bank’s capital to 20 billion riyals through the issuance of 500 million new shares.

In addition, one new bonus share will be issued for every three existing NCB shares.

Shareholders also approved a dividend distribution of 1.90 riyals per share for 2013.