Recently, Adel and I  have stressed our bullish stance on GCC banks which specific emphasis on Kuwaiti and UAE banks (Click here for more details: “M2 Bottomed: LONG GCC BANKS” and “Banks for Sale!“). After Zain’s sale, the sector that will benefit the most is the banking sector, especially banks that are directly affiliated with Al Kharafi group of firms such as NBK. Selling a 46% stake will pump around USD 15 billion in cash that will most probably be used to repay outstanding debt. This will decrease NPLs and spark a downward revision of provisions. With Q3 results around the corner, I’m reiterating our bullish view on Kuwaiti banks.

Tags: Banks, GCC, GCC Banks, Kharafi, Kuwaiti Banks, National Investments Company, nbk, NIC, UAE, Zain

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 at 5:40 am and is filed under Gulf, Kuwait, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.