NCB, Samba name Alkhudairy as chairman, Al-Ghamdi as CEO of merged bank

National Commercial Bank (NCB) and Samba Financial Group (Samba) agreed today, Oct. 11 to appoint Ammar Alkhudairy (the current board chairman of Samba) as chairman and Saeed Al-Ghamdi (the current chairman of NCB) as managing director and CEO of the merged bank.

This came following the announcement made by both banks that they entered into a legally binding merger agreement.

The two sides said that those changes will take effect only upon the merger completion, adding that their current boards of directors and executive management teams will continue to run the two respective banks separately till the merger is finalized.

They also noted that the board of directors of the new merged bank will be increased from 9 to 11 members, with two members to be nominated by Samba.

Meanwhile, the current substantial shareholders of Samba and NCB (the Public Investment Fund (PIF) will retain its four board members and the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) and the Public Pension Agency (PPA)) will continue to have the same number of directors representing them on the board of NCB as of the time of the merger completion.

The PIF will retain its four representatives, with GOSI and PPA retaining one representative each in the new entity.

Two directors will be nominated by Samba’s current board (excluding the representatives of the substantial shareholders); while the remaining directors (currently three) will be from the then current board of NCB (excluding the representatives of the substantial shareholders).

Al-Ghamdi said: “Saudi Arabia is undergoing a historic transformation with Vision 2030. Such a transformation requires a robust financial services sector, especially highly capitalised, resilient banks that can fund economic development, as well as support Saudi Arabia’s trade and capital flows with the region and the rest of the world. Our ambition is to create a national champion that can facilitate the transformation.”

Elsewhere, Alkhudairy said, “We are focused on making sure that the combined and larger bank comes together seamlessly to serve our customers, partners, investors and invaluable talent across both teams.”

The principal registered office of the merged bank will be located in Riyadh. The two banks will work with a branding consultant to advise on the name, logo and branding of the merged bank, the statement added.