Awards for Excellence 2019
Perhaps the greatest sign that a merger has been successful is if it motivates others to follow suit. That has certainly been the case with the formation of First Abu Dhabi Bank, the Emirati financial institution which we recognise this year as having effected the best bank transformation across the Middle East.
Born in 2017 from the merger of First Gulf Bank and National Bank of Abu Dhabi, national giants in their own right, FAB has quickly proven that it is more than the sum of its parts, and contributed in no small measure to the wave of banking M&A that the region has experienced over the past two years.
Despite the immense difficulties of merging two complex structures of the size of FGB and NBAD, it completed the integration as early as December 2018. By then, FAB had already achieved 75% of the cost synergies it had projected by 2020.
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Abdulhamid Saeed |
Under the stewardship of CEO Abdulhamid Saeed, the bank last year achieved net profit of AED12 billion, up 10% from 2017, its first year of activity.