GBCM receives merger offer from Financial Services

Gulf Baader Capital Markets (GBCM), the largest brokerage firm in Oman, received a merger offer from Financial Services Company, according to disclosures filed to the Muscat Securities Market (MSM) on Tuesday.

GBCM is a subsidiary company of Gulf Investment Services Holding.

‘We would like to inform that our subsidiary company Gulf Baader Capital Markets received a merger offer on Tuesday from Financial Services. The board of directors of GBCM will review the letter and take a decision on the same’, Gulf Investment Services Holding said in a disclosure to the MSM.

In a separate disclosure to the MSM, Financial Services said its board of directors resolved to commence discussions with GBCM to explore the possibility of creating new entity offering stock broking and investment advisory services. ‘This is subject to obtaining final approvals from the respective boards of directors, shareholders and regulators’, Financial Services added.

As many as 17 brokerage houses are operating in Oman market with many smaller firms struggling for volumes. GBCM is the largest brokerage firm in the sultanate with a market share of 18.6 per cent as of the end of September 2018, according to the MSM statistics.

As per the September statistics of the MSM, Financial Services holds nearly seven per cent share of Oman’s securities brokerage market.

In a recent interview with Muscat Daily, the Capital Market Authority’s executive president H E Abdullah bin Salim al Salmi had said that Oman’s brokerage firms need consolidation to create bigger and stronger institutions to be able to withstand the competition locally and regionally. “We hope to see fewer and bigger financial institutions and encourage mergers and acquisitions in the sector,” H E Salmi had said.