Social Security Corporation buys two million Arab Bank treasury shares in JD53 million deals

The Social Security Corporation (SSC) executed yesterday the purchase of two million Arab Bank treasury shares for a total of JD53 million at JD26.5 per share.

The deal, following a similar one in favour of Banque Meditterrane, a member of the Hariri Group, raises the equity of the SSC in the Arab Bank slightly to 14.8 per cent of its capital or the equivalent of 52,854,480 shares.

The SSC bought two million shares through 11 transactions carried out outside the trading floor to keep more than 700,000 treasury shares on offer for sale. The transactions, shared by brokers accredited by the SSC in accordance with specific specifications, raise the bourse's volume of trading to JD102.5 million. The shares' index role by 0.54 per cent at closing.

Arab Bank offered 5.7 million treasury shares for sale to dispose of treasury shares it was still holding in the course of an unsuccessful plan that would have allowed it to issue a new issue of securities to admit a strategic partner with a 10 per cent stake. The bank put the treasury shares for sale in line with instructions that holding the shares should not be less than six months or more than 18 months.