Dubai Islamic Bank completes Noor Bank acquisition

Dubai Islamic Bank has secured approvals from regulators in the United Arab Emirates to complete its acquisition of Noor Bank through a share swap.

The biggest Islamic bank in the UAE said in a statement on Thursday (Jan 23) it had issued 651,159,198 new shares to take its issued share capital to 7,240,744,377 shares.

Noor Bank will now be completely integrated into DIB and the merged entity holds assets exceeding 275 billion dirhams ($74.88 billion), said the bank.

DIB chairperson Mohammed Ibrahim Al Shaibani said the completion of the deal means the bank is “ideally positioned” to expand its footprint in the region and beyond.

DIB has subsidiaries in Pakistan and Kenya, and it owns nearly 40% of Panin Dubai Syariah Bank in Indonesia.

In the UAE, it is the only standalone and full-fledged Islamic bank the central bank in 2018 designated as systematically important, or “too big to fail”.

Its acquisition of Noor Bank means the UAE is left with five standalone Islamic banks: Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates Islamic, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Sharjah Islamic Bank, and Ajman Bank.

DIB’s acquisition of Noor Bank continues the consolidation of banks in the Gulf.

Kuwait Finance House shareholders this week approved the acquisition of Bahrain’s Ahli United Bank, and last week Alizz Islamic Bank’s board gave the nod for a merger with Oman Arab Bank.

Completed deals comprise National Bank of Abu Dhabi and First Gulf Bank merging in 2017 to form First Abu Dhabi Bank, followed by the merger of Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Union National Bank and the Shariah-compliant Al Hilal Bank to form the new ADCB Group in May 2019.

($1 = 3.6725 dirhams)

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