Sunday 25 October 2020

The Even More Curious Case of Bahrain Middle East Bank - Who Owns the Bank?



Another curiosity regarding BMB.

According to the information at the Bahrain Bourse, BMB has two major shareholders:
  1. AN Investment WLL Bahrain (ANI) holding some 80.77%
  2. Al Fawares Construction and Development Kuwait (ALF) holding some 14.48%
According to the online commercial register of Bahrain’s Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism (www.sijilat.bh), BMB is owned 100% by a “group of shareholders” who are all Bahraini.

You can look this up at Sijilat using BMB’s CR 12266-1.

Even more curious, according to Sijilat, ANI (CR 86835-1) was struck from the Commercial Register with the notation “deleted by law” on 15 September 2019. That is, by AA’s reckoning over one year ago.  

So here is the conundrum. 
  1. Assuming that the MOICT information is correct and that ALF has not acquired “Bahraini corporate citizenship” which Bahraini entity or Bahraini individuals own the shares previously owned by ALF?
  2. Assuming that the Bahrain Bourse information is correct, how can AN Investments WLL be a shareholder in BMB, if it no longer has a valid commercial registry? If ANI is no longer the shareholder, then who or which Bahraini entity holds the 80.77% of BMB’s shares previously owned by it?
  3. Given that over one year has passed since ANI’s forced de-registration, it would seem there would be sufficient time for the MOICT and Bahrain Bourse to agree and “conform” their data.
  4. Beyond that, surely BMB itself has an obligation to advise the Central Bank of Bahrain and the Bahrain Bourse of changes in its shareholding.
Is this a failure of communication? 

Or something else?  For example, a change in ownership due to a legal proceeding?

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