National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) has received approval from the Central Bank of Kuwait to increase its authorised capital to KWD750mn. Paid-in capital stood at KWD592mn in December 2017. The approval just increases the limit of its paid-in capital and it is done in order to allow for upcoming bonus shares, but it does not imply that NBK is planning to inject new equity any time soon.  There is an upcoming increase in paid-in capital of 5% in the next couple of months as the Board proposed a 5% stock dividend. This will take the paid-in capital to KWD621mn from the current KWD592mn

Elena Sanchez-Cabezudo, CFA