Abu Dhabi Confronts Glut of Banks With Three-Way Merger Plan - Bloomberg

Abu Dhabi Confronts Glut of Banks With Three-Way Merger Plan - Bloomberg:

Abu Dhabi is engineering a second bank merger in its latest attempt to stay competitive in the era of lower oil prices.

Three of its state-linked banks are in talks to combine into an institution with $110 billion of assets, according to Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC, one of the lenders. The negotiations follow a tie-up between Abu Dhabi’s two biggest banks last year and the merger of sovereign wealth funds in March.

"This is entirely consistent with the moves over the last few years towards tighter financial control and elimination of duplicated costs in Abu Dhabi Inc.," said Hasnain Malik, the global head of equity research and strategy at Exotix Capital in Dubai.