Saudi Arabia

Bahrain I Egypt I Iran I Israel I Jordan I Kuwait I Lebanon I Morocco I Oman I Qatar I Saudi Arabia I United Arab Emirates I Lifetime Achievement

Its record has been impressive. Its market capitalization has grown four times and in the past year it reported its best ever return on equity at 34.9% and net income of $1.07 billion that was 60% better than in 2004.

What stands out about Samba is the clarity of its strategy and the professional way it has been implemented. The bank, for example, has improved capital efficiency to 17.3% this year from 17% in 2004 yet has maintained strong capitalization to support long-term objectives.

With a strong brand identity Samba has become a leader in the consumer sector and many aspects of investment banking. There has been a significant investment in technology which has enhanced the bank’s competitiveness.

There is a state-of-the-art distribution network which is extremely efficient, including branches, ATMs, phone, internet and mobile banking and point of sale transactions – branch business now only accounts for 10% of transactions.

HSBC Saudi Arabia, which was formerly the investment banking arm of Saudi British Bank, leads the local banking sector in the breadth and depth of its offerings to the petrochemicals, oil and gas, telecoms, power and financial sectors.

HSBC is invariably the bank of choice for complex or ground-breaking transactions, including for example its appointment as lead manager for the first domestic sukuk in Saudi Arabia, which will be issued for industrial conglomerate Sabic.

In the past year it acted as financial adviser on the $600 million Islamic facility that was part of the $9.8 billion Petro Rabigh financing – the largest ever Islamic tranche on a project financing in the kingdom.

The bank acted as adviser for the $2.5 billion independent water and power production project at Shuaibah. This was the first of a series of transactions planned by WEC, setting the template for future transactions.

HSBC was lead arranger for the €352 million ECA-sponsored transaction for Saudi Iron & Steel Company, the largest deal of its kind in the country. It lead arranged the $2.35 billion commercial and Islamic facilities for the Petro-Rabigh project and also the commercial tranches of the debt facilities for the Shuaibah IWPP project.

The bank has also been mandated lead arranger for the SR3.5 billion ($933 billion) loan for Saudi Electricity Company, the SR1.8 billion loan for Saudi Arabian Airlines (which significantly was not government guaranteed) and for the $93 million Islamic financing for the Mall of Arabia.

Bahrain I Egypt I Iran I Israel I Jordan I Kuwait I Lebanon I Morocco I Oman I Qatar I Saudi Arabia I United Arab Emirates I Lifetime Achievement