Dubai lender Noor Bank to mull DIB's offer

Noor Bank will consider Dubai Islamic Bank's proposal for acquisition once it receives a formal offer letter from the world's largest Shariah-compliant bank, Khaleej Times has learnt.

John Iossifidis, chief executive of Noor Bank, said Noor Bank is aware of Dubai Islamic Bank's announcement that it intends to explore a possible acquisition of the bank.

"Should a formal offer be received, it will be presented to the Noor Bank Board for due consideration. In the meantime, Noor Bank will continue to conduct business as usual," Iossifidis said in a statement to Khaleej Times on Saturday.

Last month, DIB announced that it received approval from its board to explore the possible acquisition of its rival Noor Bank, which has an asset base of Dh50.7 billion. The potential acquisition could create a mega Shariah-complaint bank with total assets worth Dh275 billion.

Dubai's sovereign investment group, Investment Corp of Dubai (ICD) is a common shareholder in the two banks. ICD owns 28.37 per cent of DIB and more than 22.7 per cent of Noor Bank.

Q1 profits surge

Noor Bank on Saturday said its year-on-year 2019 first-quarter net profit rose eight per cent to Dh217 million as all business lines reporting strong performance in line with 2019 growth plans. The Dubai-based lender said that net profit in January-March 2019 quarter surged by 220 per cent if compared to fourth quarter of 2018. Annualised return on shareholders' equity hit 17.7 per cent.

John Iossifidis, CEO of Noor Bank, said: "We have managed costs well and made smart investments in line with our growth strategy. Furthermore, our balance sheet shows solid growth, with customer financing and customer deposits up by nine and 10 per cent, respectively, compared to first quarter of 2018," John Iossifidis said.

The bank's asset quality continued to improve, backed by the higher provision coverage ratio at 155 per cent and impaired financing ratio at 4.5 per cent. Meanwhile, the eligible liquid asset ratio reached 17.5 per cent, and the capital adequacy ratio amounted to 16.9 per cent.

"We are confident of carrying this momentum forward into the rest of 2019 with a continued emphasis on digitalisation, innovation and customer excellence that are at the core of our strategy of delivering outstanding customer experiences," Iossifidis concluded.