Thursday, July 5, 2007

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB), the United Arab Emirates’ third-biggest lender by assets, plans to set up mortgage finance and property development

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB), the United Arab Emirates’ third-biggest lender by assets, plans to set up mortgage finance and property development units in a bid to tap the emirate’s building boom.

The mortgage unit will be an ‘equal venture’ with UAE developers Aldar Properties, Sorouh Real Estate Co and Abu Dhabi-government investment firm Mubadala Development Company, ADCB’s chief executive officer Eirvin Knox said in an interview at the bank’s headquarters in Abu Dhabi yesterday.

ADCB set up another joint venture with Australia’s Macquarie Bank Ltd to focus on property development and management, he said.

Rising oil wealth in the UAE together with a change in laws allowing foreigners to own homes in some parts of the emirate has spurred a building boom in Abu Dhabi, the largest and richest of the seven sheikhdoms that make up the UAE and the country’s capital.

ADCB expects its assets to double in three years to about US$50 billion, buoyed by economic growth in the UAE, Mr Knox said.

Source: The Business Times, 03 July 2007

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