Quest for Size Has Gulf Banks Rushing to Seal Takeover Deals - Bloomberg

Quest for Size Has Gulf Banks Rushing to Seal Takeover Deals - Bloomberg:

After a long lull, deals between Gulf banks are kicking up a gear.

Lenders across the region are undergoing their biggest shake up since 2007, with almost a dozen of them involved in takeovers or mergers over the past two years. The companies are bulking up to cope with dwindling government revenues following a drop in oil prices that squeezed deposits. They’re also combining operations in a market seen as overbanked for the population size.

"We will see more bank consolidation in the Gulf Cooperation Council, with most activity likely in the United Arab Emirates," said Sergey Dergachev, who helps manage about $14 billion at Union Investment Privatfonds GmbH in Frankfurt. "Compared to Saudi Arabia, the population in the U.A.E. is excessively banked with a few large banks and lots of smaller ones.”