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Al Hilal Bank has completed the sale of Al Hilal Takaful to Siraj Holding. The divestment was driven by Al Hilal Bank's strategic decision to focus on delivering high-quality retail banking services, primarily through digital channels. Al Hilal Bank was acquired by ADCB in May 2019, following the merger between ADCB and Union National Bank (UNB). Full integration of the three banks was completed in early April 2020.

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) is planning to slash about 2,000 jobs in the near future. In May ADCB, Union National Bank (UNB), and Al Hilal Bank merged to create the UAE’s third largest bank with 423 billion dirhams ($115 billion) in assets. Before the merger, the three banks employed about 8,500 people. ADCB started laying off employees once it began the merger with the two other banks. While the new entity retained the name ADCB, UNB was delisted and dissolved as a legal entity. Meanwhile, Al Hilal Bank retains its existing identity and continues to operate as a separate Islamic bank within the ADCB Group.

The Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) has completed its merger with Union National Bank (UNB) and the combined company has acquired Al Hilal Bank to create the third largest financial institution in the UAE. Following the merger with ADCB, UNB has been dissolved as a legal entity while its shares have been delisted.
The enlarged ADCB Group will provide services to more than a million customers. It will hold AED423bn ($115.16bn) in assets with a market share of 21% of retail loans as of 31 December 2018. The Government of Abu Dhabi owns 60.2% stake in the enlarged banking group. The integration of the three banks’ operations and customer experience will be fast tracked in a phased manner from the second half of 2019.

Senior executives at Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) were appointed to top leadership positions at Al Hilal Bank, as it prepares to be acquired by ADCB. Alaa Eraiqat was announced on Sunday as the new chairman of Al Hilal Bank, while Amr Al Menhali was announced as the private bank’s new chief executive officer. The appointments come just 10 days before the three-way bank transaction, which will see ADCB merge with Union National Bank and then acquire Al Hilal. The three banks are set to merge on May 1. The new merged entity, which will retain the name ADCB, is expected to own Dh420 billion in assets, and have around one million customers.

Abu Dhabi Investment Council has increased the share capital Al Hilal Bank by AED 400 million. Al Hilal Bank's CEO Alex Coelho said this move will allow the lender to meet the growing demand for Islamic finance by investing in areas with the greatest prospects. The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) raised this year’s economic growth forecast to 2.7% from its previous projection of 2.5% while non-oil GDP growth is forecast to increase to 3.9% this year from 3.4% in 2017.

Abu Dhabi's Al Hilal Bank has uncovered internal fraud worth more than 600 million dirhams ($163 million). The case is now before the courts and includes several bank employees. A total of 38 bank employees from Asian and European backgrounds were arrested last summer, but the name of the bank was not disclosed then. Police and the central bank have been able to retrieve 625 million dirhams of the money taken. Employees allegedly withdrew funds from dormant customer accounts. Money was then transferred from the Al Hilal accounts to bogus accounts before being withdrawn. Al Hilal is a state-owned Islamic lender with total assets worth 42.7 billion dirhams.

Al Hilal Bank and Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop a strategic collaboration. The MoU focuses on the utilisation of ADGM Academy, the newly established financial educational centre. The MoU provides Al Hilal Bank with The Academy’s network of trainers, internationally renowned curriculum and ADGM’s business ecosystem. Al Hilal Bank Senior Managing Director Sultan Al Mahmood said this partnership represents a unique learning and development opportunity for employees to develop a best practice financial education. The signing ceremony took place on Monday, 16 April 2018 at the ADGM Academy, located on Al Maryah Island. It was attended by H.E. Ahmed Ali Al Sayegh, Chairman of ADGM and H.E Khalaf Abdulla Rahma Al Hammadi, Vice Chairman of Al Hilal Bank.

In this interview, Al Hilal Bank CEO Alex Coelho gives his regional and global assessment of market threats and opportunities. Coelho still lectures at New York University and those theoretical discussions help feed into the practical decisions he makes in his day job. He’s bullish about recent stock market volatility and doesn’t seem overly concerned at the possibility of the US economy overheating. Now he is more concerned by geopolitical rather than economic upsets. Coelho refuses to predict the future price of oil and sees no correlation between oil prices and their activity as a bank. He says this is due to government focus on diversifying output. He thinks Dubai’s Expo 2020 will have a positive effect on the UAE economy, as such events have high impact in economies that are in growth mode, such as the UAE and GCC.

Al Hilal Bank has announced the dividend payout of the Al Hilal Global Sukuk Fund. The Fund, which was launched in March 2012, distributed a 3.93% dividend to all registered unit holders. Al Hilal Bank CEO Alex Coelho said the Fund had registered excellent cumulative total returns since its inception in 2012. Al Hilal Bank currently offers 3 open-ended mutual funds inclusive of the Global Sukuk Fund. In 2017, Al Hilal Global Sukuk Fund was awarded the title "Best Fund over 3 years", while the GCC Equity Fund received the "Best Islamic Fund" award in 2013 and 2014. The bank plans to continue launching investment products as part of its ongoing efforts to create value and increase diversification for its clients.

Takaful Emarat has agreed to acquire Al Hilal Takaful from Al Hilal Bank. The all-cash transaction will create the largest Islamic insurer in the UAE. The move is viewed as part of a consolidation drive in the Gulf’s takaful sector to offset weak profitability. Mohammad Al-Hawari, managing director of Takaful Emarat, said the deal would drive growth through a wider range of takaful services and a larger customer base. The merger is subject to full regulatory approvals and is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2018. The transfer of Al Hilal Takaful’s ownership to Takaful Emarat will have no impact on current takaful policies, contracts, claims settlements or the writing of new insurance business.

Al Hilal Bank opened its first client service branch in Almaty, which provides a full range of Shari'ah compliant banking services for corporate and private customers. Bank customers can now use deposit products, debit cards, and cash management services, while the investment deposits are a new and unique product for the market of Kazakhstan. Focusing on the needs of customers, the bank plans on launching a programme to finance individuals in the near future. Speaking at the branch opening, Gordon Haskins, CEO of Al Hilal Bank Kazakhstan, said that Islamic finance had a great potential for development and Al Hilal Bank aimed to bring benefits and establish benchmarking of Islamic financial instruments in the region. Al Hilal was established in 2010 as the first Islamic bank in Kazakhstan and the CIS region. It is a subsidiary bank of Al Hilal Bank PJSC, which is fully owned by the Government of the United Arab Emirates.

Al Hilal Bank has distributed car seats for newborns at Danat Al Emarat Hospital for Women & Children in Abu Dhabi, as part of its new initiative for promoting child safety in the UAE. The Car Seat initiative forms part of the bank’s long-term Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme. Alex Coelho, the CEO of Al Hilal Bank, said the Bank takes CSR very seriously and is proud to play a role in providing support to local families. Mohammed Ali Al Shorafa Al Hammadi, CEO & MD of United Eastern Medical Services (UEMedical) stressed on the importance of such campaigns in the UAE. Government led research found that the majority of parents still do not believe in the importance of car seats. An astonishing 34% saw no necessity to buy them, 28% do not know which seat to buy, while 15% believe that passengers holding children is safe enough. The new programme will be complemented by an extensive car seat awareness campaign on social media and across Al Hilal Bank branches, with the objective of reinforcing the importance of car safety for children.

Abu Dhabi government-owned Al Hilal Bank has raised $100 million through a private placement of sukuk. The issue, led by First Abu Dhabi Bank, has a two-year maturity and offers 90 basis points over three-month London Interbank Offered Rate. The bank issued a privately placed $225 million sukuk in June last year, describing the deal as the first private placement of sukuk by a United Arab Emirates financial institution. That sukuk matures in January 2019, while the new $100 million issue is due on Aug. 14 of the same year. Al Hilal Bank is rated A1 by Moody's and A+ by Fitch Ratings.

Al Hilal Bank announced appointment of Alex Coelho as new chief executive officer.
With more than two decades of experience in the global financial industry, he will be responsible for reinforcing the Al Hilal Bank’s position as a leading Islamic bank in the UAE and Kazakhstan.
In the past, Coelho had leadership roles between the Middle East and New York, and co-led global financial institutions coverage in the US, Canada, Latin America, Asia and Europe, according to a statement.

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) is leading a $272m Islamic financing facility for Meydan Group to fund its projects in Dubai. The deal was structured to meet Meydan’s financing objectives, on the back of its ongoing District One Project, a master-planned luxury residential neighborhood in Dubai’s Mohammed Bin Rashid City.
Dubai Islamic Bank and Al Hilal Bank were both mandated lead arrangers for the financing, which matures in December 2018. Tirad Al Mahmoud, CEO of ADIB, said: “[The deal] also evidences the results we are achieving through stepping up our corporate financing activity, with a particular focus on high-growth companies and the real estate sector.” The deal will help utilise financing for the group’s current and future projects including those along the Dubai Water Canal. The funding will also help finance continued investment across all Meydan areas.

Abu Dhabi government-owned Al Hilal Bank has recently appointed Craig Bell as chief financial officer. Bell previously worked in New Zealand, Britain, Costa Rica, Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia, Al Hilal said. According to his LinkedIn profile, his previous post was chief financial officer at Saudi British Bank.

Al Hilal Bank's new CIO Gopi Krishnan is calling on fintech CEOs to get in touch and collaborate. Krishnan moves from another regional bank, Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB), where he was CIO since 2012. Prior to that, he was with BankMuscat International as programme director in charge of transformation, enterprise project management office and group integration. Al Hilal Bank offers Islamic banking services in the retail, corporate, wholesale, treasury and investment segments. Its core operations are underpinned by the T24 banking platform supplied by Temenos.

Abu Dhabi's Al Hilal Bank acquired $225MM RegS floating rate note Sukuk at 3mL+160bps under its $2.5 billion existing Trust Certificate Issuance Program. This trade marks the return to senior unsecured dollar Sukuk market since 2013 by an Abu Dhabi financial institution. CEO of Al Hilal Bank, Khaled Abdulla Alkhoori, said this was the first Islamic private placement in the UAE. The bank aims to work towards raising funding for medium term to enhance its funding profile.

Abu Dhabi government-owned Al Hilal Bank has raised $225 million by privately placing Islamic bonds. The issue, maturing in January 2019, was priced at the three-month London interbank offered rate plus 160 basis points. It was the first unsecured U.S. dollar sukuk issue by an Abu Dhabi bank since 2013. CEO Khaled Abdulla Alkhoori said the bank aims to work towards raising funding for the medium term to enhance their funding profile. The issue was the second tranche of the bank's $2.5 billion notes programme. In the first tranche, Al Hilal raised $500 million of five-year debt in 2013.

Dubai Islamic Bank, the largest Islamic bank in the UAE, announced today that it had launched the first UAE Sharia Departments Forum 2016.The event was organized by the Bank, as Founder & Sponsor with the valued participation of other local Islamic banks, to create a platform where the Sharia departments of financial institutions across the country can meet to exchange experiences and share solutions to the challenges they face, with the strategic objective of developing the Islamic financial services sector in the UAE. The opening event took place on April 30, 2016, at The Palace Hotel in Dubai.
As the first event of its kind in the country, the Forum was led by Sharia department at DIB and featured the Sharia departments of other local Islamic banks including Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank ,Emirates Islamic and Al Hilal Bank . 'Sharia Audit' was chosen as the theme of the event this year with a very comprehensive series of panels, each of which was led by one of the participants, discussing a different element of the topic.