Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADcb) is allegedly
eyeing up the UAE business of Lloyds Banking Group.
If reports in Reuters are anything to go by,
it would mean the end of Lloyds’s 34-year presence in the region
and another triumph for local lender ADCB in its expansion
strategy.
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An acquisition by the UAE’s third largest bank
by assets would be no surprise:
In 2010, ADCB bought Royal Bank of Scotland’s
retail banking business in the UAE, which doubled ADCB’s credit
card business.
The UAE provides a fertile ground for cards
portfolios: Acceptance and credit card penetration rates are high
and the region has not suffered as badly from a slowdown of
consumer spending as Europe.
At the time of the acquisition, Arup
Mukhopadhyay, head of consumer banking at ADCB, had said that
credit cards were one of two strategic growth engines of ADCB’s
consumer banking franchise, the other being wealth management.
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By GlobalDataThe bank also sold its 25% stake in Malaysia’s
RHB Capital to focus on opportunities in the UAE.
Lloyds only has one branch in Dubai, but
branch network numbers are relatively low in the UAE anyway. ADCB
has a 45-units strong network.
According to a source quoted in Reuters, “a
couple of meetings have taken place, the top management team is
active on this and in all probability Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank are
going in for this deal.”
Both Lloyds Banking Group and ADCB were unable
to comment immediately.
