Shareholders of both banks agree on the transaction deal, and US Federal Reserve hits the brakes in interest rate hikes.
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00:00Shareholders of Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank on Thursday approved the bank's decision
00:05to merge with Union National Bank and then to acquire Al-Hilal Bank.
00:09The approval paves the way for the transaction to then take place on May 1, after which the
00:14merged entity will retain the ADCB brand identity.
00:17UNB's brand identity will, however, be dissolved and ADCB will assume all responsibility of
00:23UNB's assets and liabilities.
00:25The merged entity is expected to have about 420 billion dirhams in assets and around one
00:30million customers.
00:31The chairman of UNB and ADCB earlier said that the merger is expected to increase profitability
00:37for the banks and to allow for customers to be provided more offerings.
00:41In other news, the Federal Reserve surprised investors on Wednesday evening when it said
00:45that it will not be hiking interest rates anymore in 2019.
00:49Investors were already expecting quite a dovish, cautious approach from the Fed, but Jerome
00:53Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, took it one step further by saying that in
00:572020 the Federal Reserve may only hike interest rates once.
01:01Both US stocks and European equities dipped slightly as a result of these news coming
01:05out of the Fed.
01:06For more details on these stories and more, please do check us out at gulfnews.com forward
01:10slash business.
01:12This has been the Daily Business Wrap.