Saudi Arabia-Based The National Commercial Bank And SAMBA Financial Group Outlooks Revised To Positive On Planned Merger

Saudi Arabia-based (The) National Commercial Bank (NCB) and SAMBA Financial Group (SFG) announced on Oct. 11, 2020, that they have entered into a binding merger agreement. Upon the merger's completion, which is planned in first-half 2021, SFG's assets and liabilities will vest in NCB, which will be the surviving entity. We are revising the outlooks on NCB and SFG to positive from stable, and affirming our 'BBB+/A-2' ratings on the banks. The positive outlooks reflect that we could raise the ratings for both NCB and SFG over the next 12-24 months if, upon the transaction's successful completion, we continue to assess the merged entity as having a superior franchise value, a more balanced credit risk profile, and strong capitalization. DUBAI

...October 16, 2020 - Saudi Arabia-based (The) National Commercial Bank (NCB) and SAMBA Financial Group (SFG) announced on Oct. 11, 2020, that they have entered into a binding merger agreement. - Upon the merger's completion, which is planned in first-half 2021, SFG's assets and liabilities will vest in NCB, which will be the surviving entity. - We are revising the outlooks on NCB and SFG to positive from stable, and affirming our '###+/A-2' ratings on the banks. - The positive outlooks reflect that we could raise the ratings for both NCB and SFG over the next 12-24 months if, upon the transaction's successful completion, we continue to assess the merged entity as having a superior franchise value, a more balanced credit risk profile, and strong capitalization. DUBAI (S&P Global Ratings) Oct. 16, 2020--S&P Global Ratings today revised the outlooks on The National Commercial Bank (NBC) and SAMBA Financial Group (SFG) to positive from stable. At the same time we are affirmed our '###+/A-2' issuer...

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