Bahrain's Al Salam Bank has extended its takeover offer for Bahraini Saudi Bank to July 12 after buying 80.2 per cent of the bank in an offer that expired June 28, Al Salam said in a statement.

Al Salam said on April 22 it offered to pay BD27 million ($71.62 million) to take over Bahraini Saudi.

The acquisition is one of the first this year in the Gulf Arab region, where banks are generally small in size. Some analysts say smaller players are ripe for consolidation as they look for ways to weather the fallout of the financial crisis. – Reuters