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April 6 (Reuters) – Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC (ADCB)(ADCB.AD) Later on Thursday, it said it was not in talks with the fund to sell 13.5 billion dirhams ($3.68 billion) of bad loans, in response to a Bloomberg report citing unnamed sources.
“ADCB denies in the strongest possible terms that it is in discussions with the companies named in the report to sell non-performing loans,” the bank said in a stock exchange filing.
Bloomberg has reported that an entity called Lexolent is seeking to assemble a group of buyers for ADCB’s non-performing loan book.
International investors focused on distressed debt said they were eyeing opportunities in the Gulf region, where banks may need to make provisions for more bad loans as companies grapple with global economic headwinds and recover after the pandemic.
“Banks are becoming more proactive in managing their loan books and we’re seeing more interest in exploring secondary market alternatives rather than enforcement,” Berkay Oncel, SC Lowy’s head of Middle East investments, told Reuters in January.
US investment fund Davidson Kempner bought a $1.1 billion loan portfolio from ADCB in January. The following month, Grant Thornton and its Asset Recovery Fund bought AED1.3 billion of non-performing loans from Abu Dhabi Bank.
Grant Thornton said the move “shows how local banks in the UAE can clean up their books to support a growing market while remaining compliant with international regulatory and banking standards”.
($1 = 3.6724 UAE Dirhams)
Reporting by Shubhendu Deshmukh in BengaluruEditing by David Goodman
Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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