The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange is awaiting a possible merger between 3 UAE banks, namely Bank of Sharjah, Investment Bank and United Arab Bank.
Today, Thursday, private banking sources told CNBC Arabia that the three Emirati banks are considering merging among themselves, after financial failures these banks experienced during the previous years.
The sources pointed out that the first stage of a possible merger between the three banks may take place initially between Sharjah and Investment Banks due to the ownership of a non-Emirati entity in the United Arab Bank, which is likely to join the second stage of the merger after the end of negotiations.
According to Abu Dhabi market data, the Sharjah government owns about 50% of the Investment Bank, while Sharjah Asset Management owns about 17% of the Bank of Sharjah, and the largest share in the United Arab Bank, which amounts to 40%, belongs to the Commercial Bank of Qatar.
Bank of Sharjah was able to turn to profitability by the end of 2021 after the bank’s accumulated losses had reached more than 180 million dirhams by the end of 2020, and the bank did not announce any quarterly financial statements in 2022.
While the accumulated losses of the Investment Bank amounted to 2.1 billion dirhams at the end of the first half of this year, and the accumulated losses of the United Arab Bank reached 527 million dirhams at the end of the same period.
