First Abu Dhabi Bank: How FAB Became the UAE’s Largest Lender

In July 2016 the boards of two Abu Dhabi banks — one the emirate’s establishment lender since 1968,
the other a faster, retail-heavy challenger — voted unanimously to recommend that their shareholders
merge them. Nine months later, one of the two ticker symbols disappeared from the Abu Dhabi Securities
Exchange for good.

First Abu Dhabi Bank is what emerged. It is now, on its own description, the largest
bank in the Middle East and Africa, holding roughly 28% of total banking assets in the UAE. How it got
there is a more interesting story than the league table suggests.

A merger of equals, precisely dated

The bank’s own investor-relations archive is unusually specific, which is useful because press
accounts of the merger vary.

The structure was a share swap: FGB shareholders received 1.254 NBAD shares for each FGB share, giving
them 52% of the combined bank against NBAD’s 48%. The Government of Abu Dhabi and related entities held
approximately 37% of the result.

The governance split followed the ownership. FGB’s chairman, HH Sheikh Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al Nahyan,
became chairman of the combined bank; NBAD’s chairman, HE Nasser Ahmed Alsowaidi, became vice chairman;
and Abdulhamid M. Saeed became chief executive.

Note what is not in that table: a single “merger effective date”. FAB’s own materials give the
delisting and the relisting, three days apart. The 1 April 2017 date often quoted appears nowhere in the
bank’s own record.

Where it stands now

The most recent primary figures come from FAB’s half-year results for 2026.

A caution on the headline number, because FAB’s own documents can be read two ways. Its June 2026
investor presentation gives total assets of AED 1.49 trillion as at 31 March 2026; the half-year release
gives AED 1.41 trillion as at 30 June. Both are the bank’s own figures on different dates and different
bases. Any total-assets number for FAB is only meaningful with its date attached, which is why we have
attached one to every line above.

Underneath the profit line, the composition is the more telling detail. Net interest income rose 14%
year on year to AED 11.48 billion, while non-interest income of AED 8.02 billion made up 41% of operating
income — a fee-and-trading share that most regional banks do not come close to. Second-quarter profit
before tax of AED 7.08 billion was up 16% on the previous quarter.

Who owns it

As at 1 June 2026, the register breaks down as follows.

That foreign holding is the highest among the large UAE banks FAB benchmarks itself against, where the
comparable figures run from roughly 14% to 22%. The shares trade on ADX with a 40% foreign ownership
ceiling — see our guides to how
ADX works for retail investors and to
Mubadala, the sovereign
investor behind the largest block.

Safety as a product

FAB competes on balance-sheet strength in a way that is unusual to see marketed so directly, and it
has the ratings to do it.

All three of the major agencies reaffirmed their ratings with stable outlooks at the half-year. FAB
describes the combination as the strongest among MENA banks at AA- or equivalent, and Global Finance’s
2025 safest-banks ranking placed it second in the Middle East, sixth across emerging markets and
thirty-fifth in the world.

The practical payoff showed up in the funding market this year: FAB issued USD 750 million of Tier 2
notes at what it describes as the tightest spread ever achieved by a GCC bank for that type of
instrument. Investors interested in the region’s debt markets may also want our report on
Abu Dhabi’s green
sukuk.

Reach

As at the first quarter of 2026, FAB reported a presence in more than 20 markets across five
continents, over 140 branches globally, more than 7,500 employees and more than four million customers
served. It counts itself among the top 100 largest banks worldwide and among the top 15 listed banks
globally by market capitalisation, with a market value of AED 188 billion at the end of March 2026.

On its home exchange it is one of the three largest constituents of the FTSE ADX 15, and it accounts
for 17% of all dividends paid on ADX — first among UAE banks and second across all UAE listed companies,
with AED 36 billion of cumulative cash dividends paid between 2021 and 2025.

The group is led by chief executive Hana Al Rostamani, with Lars Kramer as group chief financial
officer.

What the merger actually bought

Nine years on, the case for combining NBAD and FGB looks less like cost-cutting and more like
positioning. Abu Dhabi ended up with a single lender large enough to bank the emirate’s sovereign
programmes, hold its own against international banks on cross-border mandates, and carry a rating that
lets it fund cheaply through cycles.

That matters more now than it did in 2016, because the UAE’s capital markets and corporate base have
grown faster than its banking sector has consolidated. Our coverage of the
Central
Bank’s read on growth and banking and our guide to
Abu Dhabi Finance Week set out
that wider picture. For individuals and businesses choosing where to bank, our guides to
opening a personal
account and opening
a business account are the practical starting points.

Primary sources: FAB’s
FGB–NBAD
merger archive, its
June
2026 investor presentation, its
H1
2026 results release and its
credit
ratings page. This article is general information, not investment advice.