First Gulf Bank and National Bank of Abu Dhabi complete merger
United Arab Emirates regulator, the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA), has issued a certificate completing the merger of First Gulf Bank and the National Bank of Abu Dhabi, in a deal which creates the largest banking entity in the Middle East. The SCA has set 30 March as the last day of shares trading in the two banks, while the new shares will begin trading on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) on 2 April. At the end of 2016, the combined assets of the two banks were estimated at AED665.8bn ($181bn).
ABU DHABI: The UAE market regulator, Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA), has issued a certificate completing the merger of First Gulf Bank (FGB) and the National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD).

SCA has set March 30 as the last date for trading the respective shares of the two banks ahead of the beginning of trade of new shares on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) on April 2.

The merger will lead to the creation of the largest banking entity in the Middle East, and encourage more mergers between entities operating in similar sectors, including the banking sector in the UAE. ADX has already completed the procedures for the unification of the records of stakeholders in both banks. The indicative market price of the new shares will be calculated based on the last traded price of the shares of both banks in the market before the merger on March 30, 2017.

At separate general assembly meetings held last December, the shareholders of FGB and NBAD voted in favour of the merger, which was recommended by the board of directors of the two banks on July 3.

Total assets of the two banks were estimated at Dh665.8 billion by the end of 2016, according to statistics, which showed that the combined deposits rose to Dh402.58 billion, while their combined loan value increased to Dh357.2 billion by the end of 2016.

According to studies carried out on the development, the merger will contribute to reducing the operating costs of the new entity by Dh500 million a year, with the interest cost to be realised within three years, while the estimated one-time business unification cost would be Dh600 million.