Stock market traders are not buying FAB-ADIB merger denial; shares snapped up heavily

Stock market traders are not buying FAB-ADIB merger denial; shares snapped up heavily:

Stock market traders are not buying denial of reports of a potential merger between First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB).

ADIB shares have been witnessing continuous bouts of buying since the last four sessions, and on Tuesday, shares saw their biggest gain since 2017. Traded volumes were the highest since the third quarter of 2016. ADIB shares jumped more than 5 per cent to be at Dh4.88, with 9.6 million shares changing hands.

“The combined entity will help FAB surpass its regional competitor QNB both in terms of assets and net profits. However, we believe the room for extracting cost synergies would be limited given one is conventional and the other fully Islamic,” Vrajesh Bhandari, senior portfolio manager at Al Mal Capital told Gulf News.