Kuwait’s Public Institute for Social Security (PIFSS) has initially approved the merger of Kuwait Finance House (KFH) and Bahrain’s Ahli United Bank (AUB), according to a technical study prepared by the institution’s management and investment arm.

According to a local daily, PIFFS confirmed that Article 3 of Decision No. 5 of 2017 shall have the highest authority in determining the rules and programmes of investing the corporation’s funds and issuing the necessary investment decisions.

The KFH-AUB merger deal was formalised in January 2019 and it is going to be the first major cross-border tie-up in the Gulf region in recent years.

Additionally, Kuwait’s Wafra International Investment Company also affirmed its approval to open the books of both banks and start the merger process.

Wafra International Investment Company set a minimum exchange rate, which is subject to a rigorous examination process, pointing out that the book value of the total shares of KFH in the books of the due diligence report in February 2019 was KWD 202.6 million and the market value as of the same date was KWD 233.33 million.