Deals
Abu Dhabi Confronts Glut of Banks With Three-Way Merger Plan
- Merger would create a bank with about $110 billion of assets
- Emirate has been consolidating entities since oil slump
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Abu Dhabi is engineering a second bank merger in its latest attempt to stay competitive in the era of lower oil prices. The shares of the two listed banks in the potential deal surged.
Three of its state-linked banks are in talks to combine into an institution with $110 billion of assets, according to Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC, one of the lenders. The negotiations follow a tie-up between Abu Dhabi’s two biggest banks last year and the merger of sovereign wealth funds in March.