Dubai’s Emirates NBD close to hiring banks for $2bn rights sale

Dubai’s biggest bank is close to appointing Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley to manage a rights share offering of as much as $2bn, people with knowledge of the matter said. The shares fell.

Emirates NBD PJSC may also involve its investment banking division, Emirates NBD Capital Ltd, in the process and could hire other banks as well, the people said, asking not to be identified because the discussions are private. Banks haven’t formally been hired for the sale and the situation may change, they said.

A spokeswoman for Citigroup declined to comment. A spokesman for Morgan Stanley declined to comment.

Emirates NBD last year proposed selling new shares to help fund the acquisition of Turkey’s Denizbank AS. The Dubai lender Thursday said it raised 305m pounds ($373m) from the sale of a stake in London-listed Network International Holdings Plc.

The bank last week also raised the cap on foreign ownership limit to 20 per cent from 5 per cent and will seek shareholder approval to double the new limit to help attract capital.

Emirates NBD shares fell as much as 3.3 per cent in Dubai, while the benchmark index dropped 0.7 per cent.