Bank Muscat buys 26% Centurion pie

Oman's Bank Muscat, the Gulf Arab state's biggest, said on Saturday it had bought a 26 per cent stake in India's Centurion Bank.

"The deal is worth $15 million," Sunder George, Bank Muscat's deputy chief executive, told Reuters.

He said the move was part of the bank's expansion plans.

Muscat Bank posted a five percent rise in first-quarter net profits to 6.4 million rials ($16.6 million) from a year earlier. Its 2002 net profit jumped to 22.9 million rials from 7.7 million rials the previous year.

Its shares last traded on May 8 at 4.470 rials on the Omani bourse compared with a year-high of 4.600 rials in April and a year-low of 3.800 rials in January.