First Abu Dhabi Bank eyes $35bn Standard Chartered takeover

UPDATE: First Abu Dhabi Bank release statement on Standard Chartered takeover

The revival of interest comes after FAB confirmed a month ago that it had previously been in the early stages of a deal to buy the British lender.

Shares in Standard Chartered jumped almost 10% on the news.

First Abu Dhabi Bank-Standard Chartered takeover report

In January First Abu Dhabi Bank said it explored a bid for Standard Chartered, in what would have been a complex deal aimed at building an emerging markets lender with more than $1tn of assets.

The Middle East’s largest bank was previously in the “very early stages of evaluating a possible offer for Standard Chartered” but is no longer doing so, it said in a regulatory filing at the time.

Bloomberg News reported earlier that FAB had been assessing Standard Chartered for more than six months as it considered a potential bid for the London-based lender.

Regulatory rules in the UK mean First Abu Dhabi Bank cannot come back with a bid for Standard Chartered within six months of the previous potential bid’s official termination.

However, loopholes say they would be able to bid with the permission of Standard Chartered’s board or if no other suitor comes forward with a rival takeover bid.

In recent years, FAB has built up a lucrative investment banking business and amassed about $312bn in assets at the end of September. That compares with Standard Chartered’s $864bn.

With about $1.18tn in assets, the merged lender would be about a third the size of HSBC — Standard Chartered’s historic rival.