Kuwait Finance House (K.S.C.P.) (KWSE:KFH) (KFH) said on July 16, 2018 it had invited Ahli United Bank B.S.C. (BAX:AUB) to begin a due diligence process for a potential merger. KFH also asked AUB to sign a non-disclosure agreement. The scope of the agreement includes valuation studies and work to assess the feasibility of establishing a new banking entity, KFH said in a bourse statement.

No potential terms of a deal have been made public. If a merger proceeds, the total assets of the two banks would be $90.57 billion, making it the sixth largest bank in the Gulf on that measure, according to Thomson Reuters data.