Dubai's Biggest Islamic Bank Weighs Acquiring Local Rival

  • Deal would create a lender with assets of about $75 billion
  • Acquisition plan comes as region sees a wave of consolidation

A Dubai Islamic Bank  branch in Dubai.

Photographer: Christopher Pike/Bloomberg
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Dubai Islamic Bank PJSC is weighing a possible acquisition of smaller rival Noor Bank PJSC as the United Arab Emirates’ biggest Islamic lender seeks ways to expand amid a wave of mergers in the region.

“We’re in the early stages of that analysis,” Chief Executive Officer Adnan Chilwan said on a conference call on Tuesday. “There are a lot of synergies that we can see with an acquisition of Noor and should those synergies work, it would be beneficial” for the shareholders of both banks, he said.