Abu Dhabi's FAB explored making an offer for Standard Chartered, an emerging markets-focused bank. Reuters
Abu Dhabi's FAB explored making an offer for Standard Chartered, an emerging markets-focused bank. Reuters
Abu Dhabi's FAB explored making an offer for Standard Chartered, an emerging markets-focused bank. Reuters
Abu Dhabi's FAB explored making an offer for Standard Chartered, an emerging markets-focused bank. Reuters

First Abu Dhabi explored offer for Standard Chartered


Massoud A Derhally
  • English
  • Arabic

First Abu Dhabi Bank, the UAE's largest lender, said it had considered making an offer for the emerging markets-focused Standard Chartered listed in London.

“First Abu Dhabi Bank confirms that it had previously been at the very early stages of evaluating a possible offer for Standard Chartered, but as of the date of this announcement, is no longer doing so,” the lender said in a statement late on Thursday to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, where its shares are traded.

Shares of Standard Chartered, which had more than $864 billion of assets at the end of September 2022, closed up 7 per cent following FAB's statement.

“While the deal is off the table, the takeaway is that FAB is serious about inorganic growth and is willing to flex its muscle if the opportunity arises,” EFG Hermes said in a research note on Friday.

Standard Chartered, whose key market, Asia, makes up 68 per cent of its revenue and 58 per cent of its assets, would have complemented FAB’s primarily Mena business, EFG said.

With oil prices reaching a 14-year high in March of last year, Gulf lenders flush with cash, have looked beyond their local markets and expanding their footprint regionally and internationally.

FAB, which was created in 2016 with the merger of National Bank of Abu Dhabi and First Gulf Bank, has expanded beyond the UAE market.

The Abu Dhabi lender had a market value of more than $51 billion as of the close of trading on Thursday and managed more than Dh1.1 trillion ($313 billion) of assets at the end of the third quarter of 2022.

Last year it completed the merger of Bank Audi Egypt with its Egyptian operations, consolidating its market position in the most populous Arab country.

FAB opened a representative office in Iraq last year and had made a non-binding offer to buy a majority stake in Egypt's largest investment bank EFG Hermes but withdrew its bid due to “ongoing global market uncertainty and volatile macroeconomic conditions” at the time.

Last year, FAB opened its first branch in China, offering wholesale banking services to corporate and financial institution clients in China and the Asia Pacific Region.

In October, Saudi National Bank, the largest lender in the kingdom, said it was investing up to $1.5 billion in the troubled Credit Suisse, for a stake of up to 9.9 per cent.

In 2019, Emirates NBD, Dubai's largest lender, acquired Turkey's fifth biggest bank Denizbank for $2.8 billion.

FAB's net income for the first nine months of last year soared 19 per cent to about Dh11 billion ($3 billion) as its core business improved significantly amid a rise in interest income and a fall in provisions for bad loans.

Its total income rose an annual 13 per cent to Dh18 billion, driven by an 18 per cent increase in net interest income which jumped to Dh10.2 billion. Total income for the nine-month period includes a Dh3.1 billion net gain on the sale of FAB's stake in the payments business Magnati to New York-listed Brookfield Business Partners.

“FAB has delivered sector-leading loan growth in 2022 and has enviable liquidity,” EFG Hermes said.

The bank's management “is prudently building provision buffers to shield against risks from high [interest] rates. It has a better track record relative to the sector in managing asset quality pressure and its balance sheet is more skewed towards low-risk segments”.

In its statement to the ADX on Thursday, FAB said in line with UK and Hong Kong regulatory laws it reserves the right to announce an offer or possible offer for Standard Chartered within six months of Thursday's announcement based on several factors.

These include an agreement of the board of the Standard Chartered; if a third party announces a firm intention to make an offer for the lender, if Standard Chartered “announces a Rule 9 waiver proposal for the purposes of the UK Code or a 'whitewash' proposal for the purposes of the HK Code”; and/or if there has been a material change of circumstances (as determined by the Panel on Takeovers and Mergers and the Takeovers Executive of the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong).

TCL INFO

Teams:
Punjabi Legends 
Owners: Inzamam-ul-Haq and Intizar-ul-Haq; Key player: Misbah-ul-Haq
Pakhtoons Owners: Habib Khan and Tajuddin Khan; Key player: Shahid Afridi
Maratha Arabians Owners: Sohail Khan, Ali Tumbi, Parvez Khan; Key player: Virender Sehwag
Bangla Tigers Owners: Shirajuddin Alam, Yasin Choudhary, Neelesh Bhatnager, Anis and Rizwan Sajan; Key player: TBC
Colombo Lions Owners: Sri Lanka Cricket; Key player: TBC
Kerala Kings Owners: Hussain Adam Ali and Shafi Ul Mulk; Key player: Eoin Morgan

Venue Sharjah Cricket Stadium
Format 10 overs per side, matches last for 90 minutes
When December 14-17

Our legal advisor

Ahmad El Sayed is Senior Associate at Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm headquartered in London with offices in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.

Experience: Commercial litigator who has assisted clients with overseas judgments before UAE courts. His specialties are cases related to banking, real estate, shareholder disputes, company liquidations and criminal matters as well as employment related litigation. 

Education: Sagesse University, Beirut, Lebanon, in 2005.

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Match info

Manchester United 1 (Van de Beek 80') Crystal Palace 3 (Townsend 7', Zaha pen 74' & 85')

Man of the match Wilfried Zaha (Crystal Palace)

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Disposing of non-recycleable masks
    Use your ‘black bag’ bin at home Do not put them in a recycling bin Take them home with you if there is no litter bin
  • No need to bag the mask
Types of bank fraud

1) Phishing

Fraudsters send an unsolicited email that appears to be from a financial institution or online retailer. The hoax email requests that you provide sensitive information, often by clicking on to a link leading to a fake website.

2) Smishing

The SMS equivalent of phishing. Fraudsters falsify the telephone number through “text spoofing,” so that it appears to be a genuine text from the bank.

3) Vishing

The telephone equivalent of phishing and smishing. Fraudsters may pose as bank staff, police or government officials. They may persuade the consumer to transfer money or divulge personal information.

4) SIM swap

Fraudsters duplicate the SIM of your mobile number without your knowledge or authorisation, allowing them to conduct financial transactions with your bank.

5) Identity theft

Someone illegally obtains your confidential information, through various ways, such as theft of your wallet, bank and utility bill statements, computer intrusion and social networks.

6) Prize scams

Fraudsters claiming to be authorised representatives from well-known organisations (such as Etisalat, du, Dubai Shopping Festival, Expo2020, Lulu Hypermarket etc) contact victims to tell them they have won a cash prize and request them to share confidential banking details to transfer the prize money.

Visa changes give families fresh hope

Foreign workers can sponsor family members based solely on their income

Male residents employed in the UAE can sponsor immediate family members, such as wife and children, subject to conditions that include a minimum salary of Dh 4,000 or Dh 3,000 plus accommodation.

Attested original marriage certificate, birth certificate of the child, ejari or rental contract, labour contract, salary certificate must be submitted to the government authorised typing centre to complete the sponsorship process

In Abu Dhabi, a woman can sponsor her husband and children if she holds a residence permit stating she is an engineer, teacher, doctor, nurse or any profession related to the medical sector and her monthly salary is at least Dh 10,000 or Dh 8,000 plus accommodation.

In Dubai, if a woman is not employed in the above categories she can get approval to sponsor her family if her monthly salary is more than Dh 10,000 and with a special permission from the Department of Naturalization and Residency Dubai.

To sponsor parents, a worker should earn Dh20,000 or Dh19,000 a month, plus a two-bedroom accommodation

 

 

 

Coal Black Mornings

Brett Anderson

Little Brown Book Group 

City's slump

L - Juventus, 2-0
D - C Palace, 2-2
W - N Forest, 3-0
L - Liverpool, 2-0
D - Feyenoord, 3-3
L - Tottenham, 4-0
L - Brighton, 2-1
L - Sporting, 4-1
L - Bournemouth, 2-1
L - Tottenham, 2-1

Company profile

Name: Dukkantek 

Started: January 2021 

Founders: Sanad Yaghi, Ali Al Sayegh and Shadi Joulani 

Based: UAE 

Number of employees: 140 

Sector: B2B Vertical SaaS(software as a service) 

Investment: $5.2 million 

Funding stage: Seed round 

Investors: Global Founders Capital, Colle Capital Partners, Wamda Capital, Plug and Play, Comma Capital, Nowais Capital, Annex Investments and AMK Investment Office  

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%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EFirst%20match%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENovember%2020%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFinal%2016%20round%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDecember%203%20to%206%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EQuarter-finals%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDecember%209%20and%2010%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESemi-finals%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDecember%2013%20and%2014%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFinal%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDecember%2018%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
match info

Manchester United 3 (Martial 7', 44', 74')

Sheffield United 0

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Updated: January 06, 2023, 1:36 PM`