First Abu Dhabi Bank announced the completion of the legal merger of the assets of the Lebanese Bank Audi in Egypt, the change of its brand to “First Abu Dhabi Bank – Egypt”, and the start of the new identity of the bank in all its branches in Egypt, after obtaining the final approvals from the regulatory authorities, including the approval of the Central Bank of Egypt and the General Investment Authority. The bank’s operations and systems will be fully integrated in the last quarter of this year.
After the completion of the two phases of merging the assets and changing the current brand, the phase of merging the operations and systems of the two entities into one system remains, which is expected to be completed in the last quarter of this year, so that customers of the new entity can conduct their banking transactions and complete their banking services in any of the bank branches, all under the new identity. First Abu Dhabi Bank Egypt (FABMISR).
First Abu Dhabi Bank said in a statement that the bank, which owns 69 branches and 207 ATMs, has become one of the largest foreign banks in the Egyptian market, with assets of 185 billion Egyptian pounds ($10 billion) as of March 31.
In January 2021, First Abu Dhabi Bank announced that it had signed a final agreement to acquire 100 percent of the Lebanese Bank Audi in Egypt.
At that time, First Abu Dhabi expected to complete the acquisition process within the next few months, after fulfilling several common conditions in such a transaction, including obtaining final approvals from the central banks and the necessary regulatory and supervisory authorities in both the UAE and Egypt. But the completion of the process took more than a year and a half.
In April 2022, First Abu Dhabi Bank announced obtaining regulatory approval for the transfer of shares.
First Abu Dhabi Bank initially started talks in 2020 to acquire Bank Audi’s assets in Egypt, but later suspended discussions due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
The acquisition is part of FAB’s regional expansion plans. Egypt, which opened a representative office in Iraq in March, withdrew its non-binding offer to acquire a majority stake in Egypt’s largest investment bank, EFG Hermes.
At the time, First Abu Dhabi Bank cited “continued uncertainty in the global market and volatile macroeconomic conditions” as reasons to abandon the supply at the time.
First Abu Dhabi Bank more than doubled its net income in the first quarter to a record high, driven by the sale of its largest stake in the payments business and the improvement in the performance of the bank’s core business.
The bank said in April that net profit attributable to shareholders for the three months to the end of March had jumped to 5.1 billion dirhams ($1.4 billion).
