Ithmaar Bank, the Bahrain-based investment bank and part of the Ithmaar banking group, is to acquire Shamil Bank of Bahrain, the Islamic commercial and investment bank. Ithmaar Bank, which currently owns 60 per cent of Shamil, plans to purchase all the remaining issued and fully paid-up shares through a share swap. This deal, which will make Shamil Bank a wholly owned subsidiary of Ithmaar Bank, follows a $401 million purchase in August last year of 136.97 million shares in Shamil Bank from Geneva-based Dar Al-Maal Al Islami Trust. That transaction gave Ithmaar Bank a controlling stake in the institution and its subsidiaries Pakistan-based Faisal Bank Limited and Swiss-based Faysal Private Bank. This proposed share swap would make FPB, already a part of the Ithmaar banking group, wholly owned by Ithmaar Bank, while Ithmaar's effective stake in FBL would increase from 51 per cent to 65 per cent. Ithmaar Bank has sought approval from the Central Bank of Bahrain and the deal will also require the approval of an extraordinary general meeting of both banks to be held in the near future. "Our strategic acquisition of Shamil Bank is an effort to further consolidate the Ithmaar banking group, which is quickly turning into one of the most diversified and dynamic of its kind in the region," said Khalid Abdulla-Janahi, chairman of Ithmaar Bank. "Shamil Bank's outstanding performance, most recently reflected in a 62 per cent leap in half year net profits to $53.2 million, will also add value to Ithmaar Bank's own consolidated balance sheet."