Stake purchase: Bestway Group invests $230m in UBL

The Bestway Group, a UK-based conglomerate, has announced that it has increased its shareholding in United Bank Limited (UBL) to 51.07 per cent by acquiring an additional 20 per cent of shares from the Abu Dhabi Group.

In this way, the group has invested $230 million in the bank. All regulatory approvals from the State Bank of Pakistan and others have been obtained, said a press release. In 2002, a consortium consisting of the Bestway Group and the Abu Dhabi Group acquired 51 per cent of UBL shares. The consortium currently owns 61.37 per cent of the bank. The management control of UBL — Pakistan’s second largest private bank — will remain within the same consortium and no changes are being made in the senior management, said the release.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 30^th,  2011.