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AUB completes due diligence on takeover bid; Lebanese bank denies US allegations

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AUB completes due diligence on takeover bid; Lebanese bank denies US allegations

GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL

* Warba Bank KSCP secured regulatory approval to issue Islamic bonds, or sukuk, not exceeding $500 million under the umbrella of a sukuk program not exceeding $2 billion.

* Gulf Investment House KSCP has assigned Sheikh Abdulrahman Sheikh to head the financial supervision department, effective Sept. 1.

* Ahli United Bank BSC said the due diligence studies related to the potential acquisition offer by Kuwait Finance House KSCP has been completed and submitted to the Bahraini lender's board of directors for review and evaluation.

* Ithmaar Holding BSC shareholders have approved plans to voluntarily delist the Bahrain-based firm from Kuwait's stock exchange. The company will maintain its listing on the Bahrain Bourse and the Dubai Financial Market.

* Abu Dhabi is looking to issue U.S. dollar-denominated bonds before the end of the year, insiders told Reuters, adding that the transaction will likely be at least $1 billion.

* Saudi Arabia's Capital Markets Authority approved a request from Gulf One Capital Co. to amend its business profile by canceling the activities of managing investment funds, managing client portfolios and custody.

* Bupa Arabia For Cooperative Insurance Co. reappointed Loay Hisham Nazer chairman of the board of directors. The insurer also appointed David Martin Fletcher to be vice chairman of the board and Tal Hisham Nazer managing director.

REST OF MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA

* Lebanon-based Jammal Trust Bank SAL, which was recently sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control for allegedly facilitating banking activities for militant group Hizballah, said it "denies each and every allegation" and that it will appeal against the sanctions. Lebanese central bank Governor Riad Salamé said the regulator will guarantee money put in the bank by depositors not subject to sanctions, while Bank of Beirut CEO and Association of Banks in Lebanon Chairman Salim Sfeir said the U.S. has indicated that no other lenders are on the sanctions list, Reuters noted.

* Lebanon's central bank is set to receive roughly $1 billion in either deposits or subscriptions to sovereign eurobonds soon, insiders told The Daily Star.

* Nasser Social Bank, SAE Managing Director and Vice Chairman Sherif Farouk said the Egyptian state-owned specialized lender has signed a contract for EFG-Hermes Holding SAE and CI Capital Asset Management to manage its securities portfolio, Amwal Al Ghad reported.

* Misr Life Insurance Co. Chairman and CEO Ahmed Abdel Aziz said the Egyptian state-run insurer is targeting year-over-year growth in premiums of 15.5% to around 5.2 billion Egyptian pounds by the end of financial year 2019/2020, Amwal Al Ghad wrote. Aziz also said the company aims to increase investments to 31.7 billion pounds at the end of the current financial year.

* Attijariwafa bank SA signed a partnership agreement with Japan's Mizuho Bank, committing the two banks to cooperating in their corporate banking, international trade operations, project financing and capital markets activities, according to Libération.

EAST AND WEST AFRICA

* Nigerian lender Access Bank PLC said the audit of its first-half results has taken more time to complete than usual due to its recently concluded merger with Diamond Bank PLC and the consequent business integration, noting that the results will be submitted not later than Sept. 15.

* Nigeria-based United Bank for Africa PLC reported first half group profit attributable to owners of the parent of 55.30 billion naira, up from 42.19 billion naira a year ago.

* Mary Uduk, acting director-general of Nigeria's Securities and Exchange Commission, said the regulator has put in place adequate mechanisms to protect investors' investments in the capital market, The Punch reported. A complaint management framework had also been set up to address complaints of capital market investors.

* KCB Group PLC will only take over about 4 billion Kenyan shillings out of the 53 billion shillings of outstanding deposits in the defunct Imperial Bank Ltd. following completion of due diligence on the lender, with the Kenya Deposit Insurance Corp. to raise the rest of the amount for depositors who kept funds in Imperial Bank, Business Daily Africa reported, citing KCB Group CEO Joshua Oigara.

* Credit Bank Plc signed a 1 billion Kenyan shilling equity investment with Oikocredit that will see the social impact investor take a minority stake in the lender, subject to regulatory approvals.

* Britam Holdings PLC unit Britam General Insurance Co. (Kenya) Ltd. has launched a cyberrisk cover aimed at protecting businesses from data breaches or malicious cyberattacks, Standard Digital reported.

* Bank of Kigali CEO Diane Karusisi said the Rwanda-based lender expects to reduce its nonperforming loans ratio to below 5% by the end of 2019 after the ratio increased to 6.4% in the first half, Reuters reported. The lender's first half pretax profit declined 3% year over year to 21.5 billion Rwandan francs.

* Papa Kwesi Nduom, chairman of Ghanaian conglomerate Groupe Nduom, has sued the country's central bank and demanded that the regulator restore the license of GN Savings and Loans, Joy Online reported. In August, the Bank of Ghana revoked the licenses of 23 savings and loans companies and finance house firms, including GN Savings and Loans, as part of efforts to restore confidence in the country's banking and specialized deposit-taking sectors.

* ARB Apex Bank Ltd. Managing Director Kojo Mattah dismissed a "malicious" audio message circulating on social media that Ghana's central bank plans to withdraw the licenses of several rural and community banks, saying the regulator has completed its cleanup of the banking sector and will not carry out a similar exercise on rural and community banks.

* Microfinance loans in Senegal have increased to 454 billion CFA francs in the second quarter, up 12.8% from the same quarter in 2018, Financial Afrik reported.

CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN AFRICA

* South African insurer Discovery Ltd. warned that it expects its normalized headline EPS to decrease year over year by between 5% and 10% for the financial year ended June 30, noting that spending in new businesses increased by 114% over the prior year.

* Jacques Groenewald and Hester Hickey resigned as executive director and independent nonexecutive director, respectively, of South African microfinance firm African Dawn Capital Ltd., effective Aug. 31. James Slabbert, currently nonexecutive chairman of the company's board, will take over as executive chairman, effective Sept. 1.

* Victor Batubenga, head of Congo's public finances watchdog, had been detained along with one of his colleagues for questioning in what he said was retaliation for his agency's probes into senior government officials' spending, according to Reuters. The watchdog was reportedly looking into a $100 million credit line the central bank opened in May on orders from interim Economy Minister Henri Yav to reimburse fuel distributors.

* Banco Nacional de Angola said its international reserves reached their highest level so far this year in July, rising to $9.8 billion from $9.5 billion a month earlier, the Xinhua news agency reported, citing an Aug. 30 statement by the issuer. The central bank, which controls foreign currency sales to the country's commercial lenders, added that it would auction $750 million during September, Jornal de Angola and Novo Jornal newspapers reported. Angola has been struggling with reduced dollar inflows due to lower oil prices and a freeze on dollar-clearing services by foreign correspondent banks.

* Angola's central bank will soon authorize the opening of bank accounts remotely as part of wider efforts to bring people into the formal financial system, O País reported, quoting a director at the bank, Pedro Castro e Silva. He said the central bank was working with two leading telecommunications companies to allow the opening of accounts by mobile phone.

* Mozambican banks will reduce the so-called prime lending rate by 20 basis points in September, bringing it to 18.3%, O País wrote. The cut to the rate, for a third consecutive month, came as the central bank forecast flat inflation over the next two months. The prime rate is a base rate on commercial credit operations, to which individual banks can then add a spread in accordance with the risk.

IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

Asia-Pacific: Bank of Jinzhou's FY'18 net loss; Dewan Housing Finance proposes resolution plan

Erin Tanchico, Henni Abdelghani, Pádraig Belton and Helen Popper contributed to this report.

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This S&P Global Market Intelligence news article may contain information about credit ratings issued by S&P Global Ratings. Descriptions in this news article were not prepared by S&P Global Ratings.