NBAD’s global ambitions focused on specific target markets and customers

Abu Dhabi: National Bank of Abu Dhabi has branches and offices in 18 countries stretching across five continents. The bank’s international expansion will be sharply focused on specific business opportunities where the bank has a competitive advantage, said Group Chief Executive Alex Thursby.

“I think you have to be very clear about where you’re building, what type of customers you are trying to service, what products, and whether you can build a competitive proposition in that country,” said Thursby.

In its five-year transformational strategy, the bank is focused on five industry segments internationally. “We are very clear about the products that we offer our clients. We’re very clear that a segmented approach is much better for us internationally than a scaled approach,” he said.

In the wealth management business, the bank’s target audience is predominantly wealthy with greater focus on Gulf Arabs.

In the retail and commercial banking business, NBAD has no plans to open extensive branch networks in most of the international markets where it has a presence. But in some of the larger Arab markets, the bank has plans to develop retail franchise model based on the Pillar III of its strategic plan.

NBAD has not started on this plan yet. But it is seriously considering Egypt as a target market. “We are looking at Egypt because we have an operation there that has been there for some 40 years, and we are starting to think about how we can make that a franchise market under our pillar three strategy. We will be doing that this year, but we won’t be executing it to the fullest extent,” he said.

The bank has been involved in raising funds for some of the leading Egyptian firms recently. Late last year the bank led a syndicated deal of about $1.4 billion along with HSBC and National Bank of Egypt for EGPC.

“We think we can help Egypt in terms of helping it make its export industries more effective and structure transactions to competitive rates,” said Thursby.

Egypt conference

A bank delegation led by Thursby attended the Egypt Economic Development Conference last week. “Part of our reason to go to Egypt was to help people understand what our proposition is, and try to make some more transactions, which we’re doing quite well. At the same time, [we want to] understand Egypt a bit better and see where we can continue to help.” he said.

NBAD does not want to join a bandwagon of companies trying to set up business in Egypt; rather it is looking for fundamentally sound business opportunities.

A number of corporates such as Majid Al Futtaim, Emaar and government related entities such as Mubadala have announced their investment plan in Egypt based on opportunities there. But Thursby is concerned that some companies are likely to join the bandwagon without a clear road map which could eventually pose risks for these investors.

The bank has announced its plans to open its India branch on July 1, 2015. The branch in Mumbai is one of the eight network centers the bank is in the process of establishing in the West — East corridor. We’ve got Hong Kong, we will have India, we have obviously got Abu Dhabi in addition to Paris, Washington, and London.