The CEO of Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank Tirad al-Mahmoud expects the bank’s earnings performance in 2H16 of this year to be similar to 1H16. The bank reported 4% Y-o-Y growth for 1H16. The emirate's largest Islamic bank will look at a number of overseas expansion opportunities from 2017 onwards, with Turkey, Algeria and Saudi Arabia among the markets that ADIB would be interested in, Mahmoud added. ADIB in our opinion offers a liquid balance sheet (LDR of 82%) which should enable it to keep funding cost pressures at bay. That said, we believe ADIB’s capitalization – CET1 ratio of 8.6% - is relatively stretched and that it would need to take further remedial action to ensure its growth prospects and dividends are not hit. Moreover, its associate ADIB Egypt could add volatility to earnings owing to risk of EGP devaluation versus USD. We have a Neutral rating on the stock. (Reuters, Shabbir Malik, Murad Ansari)   Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank: AED3.58 as of 11 Oct, Rating: Neutral, FV: AED4.30/share, MCap: USD3,090mn, ADIB UH / ADIB.AD