While the international focus was on Qatar’s project deal flow and developments at the new Qatar Financial Centre (QFC), two major Gulf banks took the opportunity to buy into the state’s thriving onshore market in August 2004. Regional leviathan National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) was first, with a 20% stake in Grindlays Qatar Bank, quickly followed by Bahrain’s Ahli United Bank (AUB), which bought 40% of Al Ahli Bank of Qatar (ABQ).
For Grindlays, the arrival of NBK ended a period of continuous ownership changes that, since the turn of the millennium, had seen it go from ANZ to Standard Chartered. In 2003, the latter sold its 40% stake to Qatari foreign minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, who with other local investors then sought a new institutional partner and management contractor. New shares were made available to NBK, taking total shareholder equity to about $100m, and NBK took over the management contract for the bank while retaining Desmond Holmes as general manager.
