While not the biggest bank in the region, the Bahrain-based bank has acquired a 75% controlling stake in Bank of Kuwait & the Middle East (BKME), 49% of the Commercial Bank of Iraq (CBIQ) and, through a consortium, 89.5% of Egypt’s Delta International Bank. Along with 54.8% growth in net profits and 70.7% growth in assets in 2005, AUB has demonstrated that it has been genuinely able to profitably pursue a regional approach in an area not known for cross-border strategies.
Group CEO and managing director Adel El-Labban notes: “Ahli United Bank differentiates itself from its peers by adopting a strategy of focused regional expansion through mergers and acquisitions and organic growth as its major growth strategy. Our initial creation was through a share swap business combination between United Bank of Kuwait, the oldest Gulf-owned UK bank, and Al Ahli Commercial Bank and Grindlays Bank [Bahrain] BSC, two leading Bahraini commercial banks.
“Our goal is meaningful market presence through a circa 10% market share in our targeted countries. AUB seeks to service its local clients in each market as an experienced, established local player with a regional and UK dimension provided through its other group banks. Our path to date has involved the successful challenging of much conventional wisdoms regarding barriers to change and cross-border banking in the region. It is essentially proof that where there is a will, there is a way.”
