UAE bank stocks offer better value than Saudi and Kuwaiti peers, EFG says - The National

UAE bank stocks offer better value than Saudi and Kuwaiti peers, EFG says  - The National:

UAE bank shares offer better value than their Kuwaiti and Saudi peers that have received foreign interest after their upgrade to emerging market status, according to Egyptian investment bank EFG Hermes.

“Macro worries – pressure on the real estate, impact on consumer demand due to VAT, weak employment growth and soft RevPar [revenue per available room] for hotels – have weighed on UAE banks [shares],” EFG Hermes analysts Shabbir Malik and Rajae Aadel said in a report released on Wednesday.

"While these trends are expected to continue in the short-term, we note that non-performing loans formation has so far been manageable and the cost of risk is stable.”