Trading in shares of combined NBAD-FGB to start on April 2

Trading in new shares of the merged National Bank of Abu Dhabi and FGB will start on April 2, according to the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange.
The trading starts a day after the official merger of the two banks on April 1, it said.
The price of the new shares will be based on the indicative price of the shares of both companies before the merger
Both shares of NBAD and and FGB closed unchanged at Dh10.1 and Dh13 respectively at the close of trading on the Abu Dhabi stock exchange.
The merger, which was approved by shareholders of both banks on December 7, was done in part to cut down on costs by removing duplicate posts and sharing resources.
The combination has been approved by the Central Bank of the UAE but requires further approval from international regulators and the Securities and Commodities Authority.
These are expected towards the end of the first quarter of this year, the banks said in December.
The move is expected to produce cost savings of about Dh500 million a year from 2019, according to research from the Egyptian investment bank EFG-Hermes.
Even though NBAD, the biggest bank by assets in the UAE, has made headway in building its consumer banking business, it will get a boost from joining forces with FGB, which has more loans to individuals on its books.
FGB’s retail book is about 40 per cent of its total loans, while NBAD’s consumer lending portfolio makes up just 17 per cent of its outstanding loans.
Investors have backed the combination, especially as NBAD is considered one of the safest banks in the world; its high credit ratings will allow it to borrow money cheaply on behalf of the new entity, which will have assets of US$178 billion, making it one of the largest in the Middle East and North Africa.

Source: The National