Shareholders of National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) have approved doubling the size of its euro medium-term note programme to US$15 billion.
The move comes at a time when many banks in the UAE are going to the debt market with greater frequency, as liquidity in the banking system has not been as abundant as it has been in the years when oil prices were high. The decision also comes ahead of NBAD’s merger with its closest competitor, FGB.
Dubai Islamic Bank, the biggest Sharia-compliant lender in the emirate, said last week that its board of directors had approved a $5bn sukuk programme for the lender that will allow it to raise funds if necessary.
NBAD and FGB will officially merge on April 1 and shares of the new entity will begin trading in Abu Dhabi the next day.
The merger, which was approved by shareholders of both banks 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.
FGB’s retail book is about 40 per cent of its total loans, 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 to be 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 $178bn, making it one of the largest in the Middle East and North Africa.
Following FGB’s annual general assembly meeting yesterday, the bank’s chief executive Andre Sayegh dismissed as "exaggeration" that there would be between 2,000 to 2,500 job cuts after the bank merges with NBAD.
"Speculation," said Mr Sayegh when asked whether there would be up to 2,500 job cuts. "Seriously, I don’t know, we don’t know. There’s exaggeration and all the articles that have come out in the newspaper are speculative."

Source: The National