The Abu Dhabi lender FGB will have its shares delisted from the stock exchange today ahead of its merger with National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD).
Shares in the new entity, which retains the NBAD name, will begin trading on Sunday after the formal declaration of the new merged entity at the close of trade today, the banks said in a brief statement on the website of the Abu Dhabi stock exchange. Those shares include 5,643,000,000 new NBAD ordinary shares issued to FGB shareholders, the lenders said.
The merger, which was approved by both banks’ shareholders on December 7, was done in part to cut down on costs by removing duplicate posts and sharing resources.
The move is expected to produce cost savings of about Dh500 million a year from 2019, according to research from the Egyptian investment bank EFG-Hermes.
Even though NBAD, the biggest bank by assets in the UAE, has made headway in building its consumer banking business, it will get a boost from joining forces with FGB, which has more loans to individuals on its books. Retail lending accounts for about 40 per cent of FGB’s total lending book, while NBAD’s consumer lending portfolio makes up just 17 per cent of its outstanding loans.
Investors have backed the combination, especially as NBAD is considered one of the safest banks in the world; its high credit ratings will allow it to borrow money cheaply on behalf of the new entity, which will have assets of US$178 billion, making it one of the largest in the Middle East and North Africa.
mkassem@thenational.ae
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