Standard Chartered is in talks to purchase shares in Baghdad-based Warka Bank for Investment and Finance, according to a Warka official.
“Yes, there are negotiations for Standard Charter to acquire shares of Warka Bank,” Hussam Abdul Kareem Khalaf, a branch manager at Warka Bank in Baghdad’s Green Zone, said in a telephone interview Monday. “We are still not sure about the percentage of shares as negotiations are still ongoing, but this is expected to take place.”
A Standard Chartered spokesman reached by telephone from Dubai declined to comment.
The bank’s private equity arm last month bought a minority stake in a Saudi Binladin Group unit for $75m and said it was scouting for fresh deals in the Gulf kingdom.
The company has invested about $3.5bn in over 65 companies throughout Asia, Africa and the Middle East since 2002.
The London-based bank also completed a $75m mezzanine investment in Bahrain-based Jawad Group, in its first Gulf private equity transaction, earlier this year.
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