A shareholder in troubled Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi and Brothers Company (Ahab) has sold a 2.2 per cent stake in Samba Financial Group, reports said.

Samba, the kingdom's second largest lender by market value, said on Sunday that Saud Algosaibi, who is at once Ahab's managing director and one of its main shareholders, was no longer Samba's chairman and had left its board, banking sources said.

The announcement follows the sale on Saturday of a 2.2 per cent stake in Samba to state-controlled Public Pension Agency by unknown parties, according to a report in our sister newspaper Gulf Daily News.

Sources said the 2.2 per cent stake belonged to Saud Algosaibi and that Ahab still owns 4.5 per cent stake in Samba.

The deal involved 19.8 million shares in Samba and was worth 841.5 million Saudi riyals ($224.4 million) based on Saturday's closing stock price, which made it the biggest known strategic transactions in the Saudi market this year.

Algosaibi's departure from Samba was the highest-level executive departure in the Saudi financial sector since family conglomerates Saad Group and Ahab unveiled massive debt defaults.