Abu Dhabi: First Gulf Bank (FGB) and National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) released preliminary financial information on the entity that will come from the merger of both banks, and named FGB as the acquirer of NBAD.
In a statement on Sunday, the banks, which had been dubbing their deal as “a merger of equals,” said they accounted for the deal as an acquisition by FGB of NBAD (reverse acquisition) to abide by accounting policies.
“The group has adopted the acquisition method of accounting under IFRS 3 Business Combinations. IFRS 3 requires that an acquirer be identified in any business combination and acquisition accounting principles be applied. For the purposes of this pro forma financial information, FGB has been identified as the acquirer,” the financial statement said.
According to the balance sheet, the new entity will have consolidated assets worth almost Dh661 billion, which is higher than the Dh642 billion announced earlier mostly on account of a Dh14 billion pro forma adjustment.
The financial statement also lists consolidated net profit of the new entity at Dh5.3 billion, which is a summation of NBAD’s and FGB’s Dh2.65 billion and Dh2.66 net profits respectively as of June 30, 2016.
The merger, which is expected to happen in the first quarter of 2017, will create the largest bank by assets in the Middle East and North Africa.
