Union National Bank (UNB)’s CEO Mohammad Nasr Abdeen said that neither the management nor the major shareholders are not currently having any talks about a possible merger with Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB). Abdeen added that growth in 2017 will be slightly better than last year as oil prices expected to continue to improve. He expects UAE banks to grow by no less than 5% on average in 2017, with 2016 being a difficult year due to low oil prices. Abdeen says high cost of funding stunted profit growth in 2016 and he doesn’t expect this trend to continue in 2017 because high cost of funding will be shifted gradually to loans. He further stated that UNB has no plans to tap bond market in 2017 as the bank has enough liquidity and doesn’t expect any significant jump in the economy. UNB used so far USD1bn of its USD3bn bond programme.  UNB is expected to turn China representative office into branch. UNB expects to expand aggressively in Egypt and to open more branches beyond the existing 42 branches. 

UNB (AD): AED4.25 as of 8 Mar. 2017, Rating: Neutral, TP: AED4.80/share, MCap: USD3,186mn, UNB UH/UNB.AD

ADCB (AD): AED7.35 as of 8 Mar. 2017, Rating: Neutral, TP: AED7.90/share, MCap: USD10,420mn, ADCB UH/ADCB.AD