Mubasher: The Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) has hired the US-based McKinsey & Company to review the merger between Kuwait Finance House (KFH) and Ahli United Bank -Bahrain (AUB).

McKinsey will conduct a feasibility study to evaluate the added value for KFH, the banking sector, and Kuwait’s economy, local newspaper Al-Qabas reported, citing banking sources.

The study will tackle different factors regarding the form of the new banking entity, including the resulting risks and benefits, being sharia-compliant, and competitiveness, the sources added. 

The sources noted that the merger will boost exports of banking services, improve the entity’s financial planning capability, slashing cost and time, and diminishing and overcoming risk.

In March, AUB announced that the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) approved for KFH to conduct the merger study on AUB.

In February, KFH approved the appointment of Goldman Sachs as the main advisor, while PricewaterhouseCoopers was appointed as the financial and tax advisor.

KFH added that the UK-based Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer was named as the legal advisor for the tie-up with AUB Bahrain, while the Kuwaiti AlShall Economic Consultants was appointed as a local advisor.