Credit Agricole SA, France’s third-largest bank by market value, is considering a sale of its 31 percent stake in Saudi Arabian lender Banque Saudi Fransi, in a deal that could potentially fetch about US$2.4 billion, people familiar with the matter said.
The bank is speaking to advisers to find buyers, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private.
The stake might attract both international and regional lenders that are seeking an entry into the kingdom, one person said.
A formal process has not started and the bank might still decide against the sale, the people said.
Credit Agricole and Riyadh-based Banque Saudi Fransi representatives declined to comment.
Credit Agricole has been cutting costs and refocusing on its main markets to propel growth.
CEO Philippe Brassac last year completed a US$19.6 billion deal to sell holdings in more than three dozen regional lenders, simplifying the structure and raising capital buffers.
Barclays PLC last year agreed to sell its Egyptian business to Morocco’s Attijariwafa Bank, while Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC is working with Credit Suisse Group AG to sell its 40 percent stake in Saudi Arabia’s Alawwal Bank, Reuters reported in November last year.
Banque Saudi Fransi’s 29 billion riyal (US$7.7 billion) market value makes it the nation’s fifth-largest bank, data compiled by Bloomberg showed.
The company, which has assets of 203 billion riyals, reported fourth-quarter profit that slumped 61 percent due to higher impairments for credit losses.
The shares have fallen 7.4 percent this year and closed at 24.1 riyals on Tuesday.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day