3 UAE Banks Mull Takeover of Citibank’s Egypt Retail Unit

Three UAE banks operating in the Egypt’s market are planning to compete over the individual financing portfolio of Citibank – Egypt, following the mother company’s plans to exit consumer banking services in 11 markets including Egypt.

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank – Egypt (ADIB Egypt), Mashreq Bank and the National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) are readying themselves to acquire the US Bank’s individual customer base in Egypt, which includes nearly 600,000 customers in a loan portfolio exceeding EGP 1.7 billion, UAE Al Bayan newspaper reported, citing Bloomberg, adding that the portfolio mainly focuses on personal loans and credit cards, which exceed 75,000 cards.

Citibank – Egypt Vice President Lamis Negm declined to comment on the ongoing negotiations but revealed that the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) will manage all the stages of the retail activity exit process, which could take a long time. Citigroup’s exit from Spain took five years to complete.

It is likely that other Citibank branches will be available for sale in line with the Group’s plans to cut some of its activities and maintain branches that serve corporate customers, Negm added.

These steps are part of the US-based Bank’s plans to speed up the restructure of its global business for individual services, added to focusing on markets that maintain large growth capabilities.

The New York-based Citigroup has previously announced plans to exit consumer banking in 11 countries, namely: Costa Rica, Egypt, Hungary, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Japan, Guam, and the Czech Republic, added to the consumer-finance business in Korea. The Bank will continue to work with institutional clients in these countries, a statement by Citigroup had revealed.