Mergers Dominate the Agenda As GCC Banks Continue Strong Performance
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AUTUMN 2019 GCC BANKING 35 Mergers dominate the agenda as GCC banks continue strong performance One quarter of all GCC commercial banks have been engaged in merger discussions over the past two years, and most of those discussions have ended successfully, with larger and more powerful institutions being created. Underlying this corporate activity has been strong financial performance among the leading players. Arab Banker’s Editor, Andrew Cunningham, reviews recent developments and looks for explanations for the recent increase in merger activity. n one sense, GCC banking is remarkably stable. This year’s Among the smaller banks, Sharjah-based Investbank listing of the biggest GCC commercial banks, based on reported a large net loss and has since been recapitalised Iend-2018 shareholders’ equity, contains the same 50 banks by the Government of Sharjah, which injected Dh1.12 bn as it did last year, with only one exception: International ($305 mn) for a 50.1% stake and appointed a new chairman. Bank of Qatar falls out of the list because it did not publish Even after the re-capitalisation, rumours continued of a full-year financial statements for 2018, pending its merger possible merger between Investbank and two of the other with Barwa Bank, which was completed in April this year. three Sharjah-based banks, Bank of Sharjah and United Arab The rank order of the biggest GCC banks has changed, Bank. (The fourth is Sharjah Islamic Bank.) but not by much, and hardly at all among the bigger banks. Sharjah’s need for four domestic banks has been Dubai Islamic Bank pushed Saudi British Bank out of the top questioned for decades, although mergers have always been 10, but there were no other changes at the top of the table. resisted. The emirate of Abu Dhabi, whose economy is many Among the biggest 50, 43 reported higher net profits times bigger than Sharjah’s, has only three domestic banks, in 2018 than in 2017. Only one reported a net loss – Gulf following recent merger activity, although Abu Dhabi’s International Bank. banks are much bigger. Even Dubai only has five locally- Mergers and possible mergers of GCC commercial banks* UAE: Abu Dhabi Merger of National Bank of Abu Dhabi and Legal merger completed in April 2017. First Gulf Bank to form First Abu Dhabi Bank Qatar Merger of Barwa Bank and International Bank Legal merger completed on 21 April 2019. of Qatar UAE: Abu Dhabi Merger of Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and Legal agreement completed on 1 May 2019. Union National Bank, with the combined entity then acquiring Al-Hilal Bank. Saudi Arabia Merger of Saudi British Bank and AlAwwal Legal merger completed on 16 June 2019. Bank (formerly Saudi Hollandi Bank) UAE: Dubai Possible acquisition by Dubai Islamic Bank DIB’s board approved the acquisition in June 2019. Noor Bank is (DIB) of Noor Bank much smaller than DIB. Bahrain and Kuwait Possible merger of Kuwait Finance House KFH stock exchange disclosure on 13 February 2019 reports and Ahli United Bank of Bahrain Central Bank approval to conduct due diligence studies. Ahli United Bank made several stock exchange disclosures during H1 2019 confirming that it was engaged in due-diligence studies. Oman Possible merger of Oman Arab Bank and alizz OAB’s majority shareholder (Ominvest, 51%) said in May 2019 that bank merger talks were going well. Saudi Arabia Possible merger of National Commercial The banks announced in December 2018 that they were Bank and Riyad Bank considering a merger, but since then no further public announcements have been made. Oman Merger abandoned, March 2019: National Press reports suggest that NBO’s largest shareholder, Commercial Bank of Oman (NBO) and Bank Dhofar Bank of Qatar, did not support the merger. * The list includes only mergers, or possible mergers, between commercial banks that are licensed by their central bank. WWW.CIBEG.COM WWW.CIBEG.COM 36 GCC BANKING ARAB BANKER Largest 50 GCC commercial banks, ranked by equity size (end-2018)* Total Customers’ Net Capital Equity Assets Net Loans All figures in $ mn except for the capital ratio which is % Deposits Profit Ratio (Basel)** 1 First Abu Dhabi Bank UAE (Abu Dhabi) 27,767.3 202,625.9 96,178.0 126,749.4 3,285.7 15.7 2 Qatar National Bank Qatar 24,252.9 236,883.1 168,282.2 169,452.2 3,814.3 19.0 3 National Commercial Bank Saudi Arabia 17,526.9 121,009.5 70,813.1 85,060.5 2,890.5 20.6 4 Emirates NBD UAE (Dubai) 17,433.9 136,243.7 89,295.7 94,724.2 2,734.3 20.9 5 Al-Rajhi Bank Saudi Arabia 12,959.0 97,419.3 62,471.2 78,444.2 2,748.2 20.2 6 Samba Financial Group Saudi Arabia 11,292.1 61,370.4 30,348.8 45,418.3 1,475.6 22.7 7 National Bank of Kuwait Kuwait 12,217.9 90,539.1 51,176.5 47,497.2 1,300.3 17.2 8 Riyad Bank Saudi Arabia 9,815.0 61,360.1 40,308.4 45,325.4 1,258.7 18.1 9 Dubai Islamic Bank UAE (Dubai) 9,292.7 60,908.8 39,412.4 42,385.6 1,362.5 17.5 10 Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank UAE (Abu Dhabi) 8,933.0 76,198.0 45,317.9 48,103.0 1,317.9 17.3 11 Saudi British Bank Saudi Arabia 8,664.4 46,591.1 29,445.9 34,832.1 1,315.6 21.3 12 Banque Saudi Fransi Saudi Arabia 8,223.8 50,764.5 32,196.5 39,599.3 882.7 19.8 13 Arab National Bank Saudi Arabia 7,070.8 47,585.6 32,305.0 37,608.6 883.9 18.1 14 Kuwait Finance House Kuwait 6,846.9 58,659.5 41,704.3 38,886.6 869.8 17.5 15 Qatar Islamic Bank Qatar 5,698.0 42,099.6 28,081.5 27,638.6 725.5 18.8 16 Alinma Bank Saudi Arabia 5,684.3 32,383.8 22,335.5 24,055.1 671.9 21.0 17 Mashreqbank UAE (Dubai) 5,654.5 38,103.5 18,862.2 22,660.5 562.4 16.5 18 Commercial Bank of Qatar Qatar 5,494.7 37,109.8 22,996.5 19,595.1 457.0 15.5 19 Union National Bank UAE (Abu Dhabi) 5,161.8 29,133.2 19,695.8 21,086.9 322.8 18.9 20 Bank Muscat Oman 5,019.9 31,999.2 23,277.8 22,037.7 467.7 19.4 21 Ahli United Bank Bahrain 4,972.0 35,507.6 19,504.0 23,660.0 752.4 16.9 22 Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank UAE (Abu Dhabi) 4,829.7 34,090.4 21,423.7 27,340.0 681.0 17.2 23 Bank-ABC Bahrain 4,316.0 29,549.0 14,884.0 16,425.0 248.0 18.8 24 Masraf Al Rayyan Qatar 3,701.8 26,730.9 19,826.5 16,915.6 587.8 19.2 25 Al Awwal Bank Saudi Arabia 3,699.3 21,893.3 15,418.0 17,234.4 301.7 20.6 26 Saudi Investment Bank Saudi Arabia 3,586.8 25,641.0 15,857.2 16,998.8 389.3 19.4 27 Doha Bank Qatar 3,498.4 26,409.3 16,429.2 15,237.2 228.1 17.0 28 Burgan Bank Kuwait 3,127.7 24,137.1 14,071.1 12,436.5 276.3 17.4 29 Bank Al Jazira Saudi Arabia 3,001.2 19,484.5 10,915.4 13,826.5 267.0 27.5 30 Commercial Bank of Dubai UAE (Dubai) 2,510.3 20,177.9 13,872.3 14,476.9 316.4 14.6 31 Commercial Bank of Kuwait Kuwait 2,409.4 14,747.1 7,437.4 7,565.5 210.6 18.7 32 Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait Kuwait 2,232.8 15,014.2 9,988.8 10,280.9 139.3 19.2 33 Gulf International Bank Bahrain 2,196.2 27,546.1 9,817.8 18,322.4 -227.0 14.5 34 Bank AlBilad Saudi Arabia 2,090.6 19,653.4 13,503.2 15,260.1 296.4 17.3 35 Gulf Bank Kuwait 2,075.3 19,859.7 13,039.2 12,328.5 187.2 17.5 UAE (Ras Al 36 National Bank of Ras Al Khaimah 1,949.7 14,345.9 8,948.0 9,296.3 249.8 17.2 Khaimah) 37 Qatar International Islamic Bank Qatar 1,889.9 13,906.9 7,599.1 8,613.6 244.1 16.4 38 Barwa Bank Qatar 1,854.5 12,188.0 7,626.0 7,152.5 210.2 16.7 39 Bank Dhofar Oman 1,818.2 10,972.4 8,225.8 7,615.7 131.0 17.3 40 Al Khaliji Commercial Bank Qatar 1,806.9 14,314.8 8,602.1 7,858.0 167.2 16.9 41 Noor Bank UAE (Dubai) 1,636.7 13,810.9 8,713.2 9,627.9 163.7 16.0 42 Ahli United Bank (Kuwait) Kuwait 1,622.1 12,919.1 9,242.4 8,002.6 169.3 16.6 43 Boubyan Bank Kuwait 1,604.3 14,342.1 10,768.8 12,282.6 185.5 18.2 44 Ahli Bank of Qatar Qatar 1,511.3 11,100.4 7,500.7 5,932.9 182.9 18.2 45 Al Hilal Bank UAE (Abu Dhabi) 1,494.8 11,884.8 7,643.1 8,529.5 28.8 17.3 46 Sharjah Islamic Bank UAE (Sharjah) 1,467.0 12,184.2 6,568.9 7,199.2 139.0 17.0 47 National Bank of Oman Oman 1,397.1 9,304.2 7,316.7 6,386.3 131.8 16.3 48 National Bank of Fujairah UAE (Fujairah) 1,394.7 10,833.0 7,134.9 8,297.7 167.5 15.2 49 Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait Bahrain 1,332.8 9,540.0 4,721.1 6,324.6 180.3 19.6 50 National Bank of Bahrain Bahrain 1,267.3 8,511.3 3,169.9 5,834.8 186.4 33.8 * See box on page XX for information on merged banks.