KUWAIT: Kuwait’s Burgan Bank wants to raise more capital this year to comply with the Basel III banking industry regulations while any acquisitions were unlikely to come soon, the lender’s chief executive said yesterday.
The increase, which may happen in the third or fourth quarter of this year, could be “pure capital” or perpetual bonds or both, CEO Eduardo Eguren said, depending on discussions with regulators and shareholders.
“We are discussing this with the central bank,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the bank’s annual general meeting. “I know that we may need to increase capital by 20, 30 percent for sure,” he said, without giving an exact figure. The bank only wants to issue perpetual bonds if they counted towards capital ratios, he said.
The bank’s chairman said in November that Burgan wanted to issue a bond of up to KD150m early this year.
In terms of potential acquisitions, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates continue to be attractive, Eguren said.
“I see opportunities all around,” he said. Reuters
