Saudi's largest lender NCB agrees to buy rival Samba for $15 billion

National Commercial Bank, Saudi Arabia’s largest lender by assets, agreed to buy rival Samba Financial Group for $15 billion in one of the biggest banking takeovers this year.

NCB agreed to pay 28.45 riyals ($7.58) for each Samba share on Sunday, valuing it at about 55.7 billion riyals. NCB will offer 0.739 new shares for each Samba share, at the lower end of the 0.736-0.787 per share ratio agreed when the banks signed an initial framework agreement in June.

The offer price is a 3.5 per cent premium to Samba’s Oct. 8 closing price of 27.50 riyals and about 24 per cent