UniCredit today announced the opening of a new Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB) branch in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates. The structure will help to further enhance the generation of international business and will expand the bank's offer globally for its corporate clients and financial institutions. UniCredit has chosen Abu Dhabi Global Market, the main financial free zone in the region, as the basis for its business.
New branch will expand on former representative office established in 2001 and serve as hub for Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and wider Middle East and Africa (MEA) region, offering greater customer support of UniCredit while supporting local customers, which include multinationals, local financial institutions and sovereign wealth funds (SWFs).
UniCredit's new structure will build on the already established business with MEA counterparties, which the bank assisted in transactions in the region worth €6,5 billion in 2016.
The GCC countries account for around 6% of total trade with the EU and the fifth largest export market for the EU. The region is also strengthening its position as the trading hub of major emerging Asian and African countries: trade between the GCC and China is estimated at more than US$110 billion this year. The Gulf is also home to several major sovereign wealth fund investment firms and is a significant source of global foreign direct investment (FDI) flow.
Commenting on the opening, Jean Pierre Mustier, Chief Executive Officer of UniCredit, said: “The Gulf Cooperation Council countries represent an important destination for UniCredit clients, with more than 1.000 European organizations already active on the market and operating in crucial sectors for the development of the GCC, such as trade, manufacturing, construction, utilities and oil & gas. These market characteristics, together with the knowledge of the region resulting from our long-standing presence in Abu Dhabi, will enable UniCredit to capitalize on opportunities for our clients. Our vision, 'One Bank, One UniCredit', of a simple and successful pan-European banking group, with a seamlessly integrated CIB segment and a unique network in Western, Central and Eastern Europe, also has a lot to offer multinational institutions and finances of the region”.
Based in the financial free zone called Abu Dhabi Global Market, the branch will initially focus on Transaction Banking and Financing (mainly in Euros and US Dollars).
The range of financing products includes working capital loans, term loans, commodity trade finance, structured loans (syndicated loans, acquisition finance, structured trade & export finance).
In the Transaction Banking segment, UniCredit will provide documentary credits (import and export letters of credit), guarantees, liquidity management services and an advanced eBanking platform.
The activities will be mainly carried out by the competence centers in Milan and London. The new Abu Dhabi branch represents an important evolution of UniCredit's international network to support the group's clients in their international expansion and capture investment flows to and from Europe. The opening follows the successful opening of the Spanish branch in Madrid in 2016. The Abu Dhabi branch will be led by Yahia El Assadi, Head of MEA Region and Abu Dhabi branch, who will report directly to the UniCredit Corporate Co-Heads & Investment Banking, Olivier Khayat and Gianfranco Bisagni.
