Kuwait’s finance minister has asked its sovereign wealth fund to review the feasibility of the takeover of Bahrain’s Ahli United Bank by its subsidiary Kuwait Finance House, state news agency KUNA reported on Wednesday.
The decision came due to the fallout of the coronavirus outbreak and a global recession predicated by experts, KUNA said.
KFH obtained permission from the Central Bank of Bahrain to postpone the process “given the unprecedented circumstances relating to the Covid-19 pandemic,” it said in a filing to the Kuwaiti bourse.
“The postponement came under the guidance of the regulatory authorities in the two countries, to consider the suitability of the two banks’ conditions to this big step, after the coronavirus crisis and its implications,” a source close to the deal said.
Source Reuters