(Adds RBS comment)
By Nicolas Parasie
DUBAI--Commercial Bank of Dubai, a lender partly owned by the
emirate's sovereign wealth fund, Wednesday said it purchased
corporate loans worth 3 billion U.A.E. dirhams ($817 million) in
the United Arab Emirates from the Royal Bank of Scotland as the
U.K. lender continues to scale back its international business.
The loan portfolio consists mostly of large U.A.E. businesses
that have "excellent" credit profiles, the Dubai bank said. It will
finance the acquisition, the price of which wasn't disclosed, using
its own funds.
For RBS, the sale of the loan-book comes at a time when the U.K.
bank is cutting costs, closing down investment banking operations
across the globe and retreating to its domestic market. RBS, which
is 80% controlled by the U.K. government recently sold the
international arm of its wealth business Coutts.
A RBS spokewoman said: "As part of RBS's strategy to become a
smaller, more focused bank, more aligned to the needs of our
customers in the U.K, and Western Europe, we have taken the
decision to exit our corporate debt and DCM business in the Middle
East & Africa. The sale of this corporate loan portfolio to the
Commercial Bank of Dubai is part of that process in the Middle East
region."
CBD, in which sovereign fund Investment Corporation of Dubai
owns 20%, is a domestic lender in the emirate that primarily
focuses on mid-market corporate clients.
Write to Nicolas Parasie at Nicolas.parasie@wsj.com
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