Oman: Muscat National Holding to merge with insurance units
Source: Middle East Insurance Review | Sep 2017
Muscat National Holding (MNHC) has announced a plan for mergers with its two subsidiaries Muscat Insurance and Muscat Life Assurance.
In a filing with the Muscat Securities Market in July, MNHC said the Capital Market Authority (CMA) has given regulatory approval for the two mergers.
“On completion of both mergers, MNHC will be the surviving entity and the commercial registration of both subsidiaries will cease,” MNHC said.
The CMA approval is provided on the basis that both mergers are approved by shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting which was scheduled on 27 July.
MNHC will change its commercial registration to that of a composite insurer following the mergers. The two subsidiaries will transfer to the merged entity the licences to underwrite general and life insurance businesses.
As MNHC is already a listed company, this means that it will not have to launch an IPO.
Set up in 1995, Muscat Insurance was restructured in 1999, with MNHC made the parent company and the insurance operations split between the wholly-owned general and life subsidiaries.
A law introduced in 2014 in Oman mandates all local insurers (excluding branch operations of foreign companies) to be publicly listed by August 2017. Insurers also have to increase their minimum capital to OMR10 million (US$26 million) from OMR5 million. M
OMR1 = US$2.60