UAE banks dig in for new era
11 April 2025
Gulf decision makers, like their counterparts elsewhere in the world, are gauging the potential impact of the world’s new tariff regime.
Amid the global economic turmoil emanating from Washington DC, UAE banks have reason to be confident about their prospects of withstanding the negative effects, after a strong 2024 that saw double-digit credit growth and solid profits across the board.
Full-year loan growth stood at 11% in 2024, notes ratings agency Fitch Ratings, while UAE banks’ profits reached a record-high level, with a 19.1% return on average equity.
Surprising success
Loan growth surprised on the upside, reflecting stronger activity from government-related entities (GREs), which has provided good business for Emirati banks. For example, majority government-owned Emirates NBD had almost one-quarter of its loan book exposed to the Dubai government and its GREs.
The broader outlook is positive for UAE banks in 2025. Amid healthy operating conditions and robust liquidity, lending growth should remain close to double figures this year.
The combined net income of Fitch-rated banks was AED80bn ($19.8bn) in 2024, up from AED76bn ($18.8bn) in 2023. This rise was driven by a 10% expansion of the banks’ pre-impairment operating profit, contained loan impairment charges – due to the favourable operating environment – and strong coverage of already crystallised problem loans at most banks, said Fitch Ratings.
The UAE’s largest bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), reported a 13% year-on-year increase in pre-tax profits to AED19bn ($4.7bn), supported by revenue growth of 15%.
“UAE banks are at the top of the cycle,” says Anton Lopatin, UAE bank analyst at Fitch Ratings. “At Fitch, we’ve upgraded a lot of standalone ratings for banks in the last 24 months. Together with other factors that reflected that in the last two years we have seen some the highest profits ever in the UAE, because of the strong liquidity and the healthy economic environment.”
Although profitability is expected to decrease marginally in 2025, UAE banks will continue to benefit from solid internal capital generation and high shareholder support, according to S&P Global, another ratings agency.
Taxes, rates and regulations
UAE banks, like other companies active in the country, have also had to cope with the introduction of corporate tax, imposed in mid-2003 at an average 9% rate. Even so, UAE banks realised a high return on equity in 2024, despite it being the first full year in which banks paid corporate tax.
UAE banks have benefited from the higher-for-longer interest rates, an avenue of earnings that is gradually closing off in light of the US Federal Reserve’s protracted series of rate cuts. Nonetheless, analysts see the impact remaining supportive through 2025.
“The market consensus is that in 2025, there will be a maximum of two cuts in interest rates. That would mean banks would likely report another return on average equity close to 20% again, in line with what we saw last year,” says Lopatin.
Another source of support is the new credit risk management standards introduced by the UAE Central Bank in November, which are likely to strengthen banks’ long-term creditworthiness.
“From a ratings agency perspective, this is positive, as … target banks have to become more prudent in terms of how they classify loans, and how they book provisions against new impairment cases. This means they should be more conservative than they used to be,” says Lopatin.
The standards are aimed at improving the transparency of the banks’ asset quality and ensure stronger provision coverage for problem loans. Consequently, capital and profitability metrics should face less pressure in times of stress, notes Fitch.
“The Central Bank of the UAE targets the sector average impaired loan ratio to be less than 5% in the long-term. The current average is 4%, but we are in the positive part of the cycle,” says Lopatin.
Some banks may report higher Stage 2 or Stage 3 loans ratios due to the new standards, but Fitch maintains its forecast sector-average impaired loans ratio at 4% for 2025 because the impact on most large and medium-sized banks is likely to be limited, and robust growth should continue to dilute increases in Stage 3 loan ratios.
Pressure has been exerted on banks to offload some of their bad loans, most notably in Abu Dhabi.
The process got rolling in 2023, when Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) offloaded a $1.1bn loan portfolio to US investment fund Davidson Kempner, as part of a move to rid its balance sheet of corporate defaults. The lender is now looking to package off more non-performing loans by the end of 2025 and is reported to be in the early stages of studying such a deal.
In January, FAB also announced its intention to offload some impaired loans and is reportedly looking to sell its portfolio of non-performing loans worth about $800m to Deutsche Bank. This process mirrors what is happening in Saudi Arabia, where the authorities want banks to securitise some of the impaired loans.
Opportunities abroad
While the domestic economic upturn and the servicing of GREs’ credit needs will underpin future Emirati bank growth, lenders also continue to look out for new opportunities beyond the GCC home market.
Turkiye is one of the more promising prospects for UAE banks to grow their footprints. Although an attempt last year by FAB to acquire a stake in the country’s fourth-largest private bank, Yapi Kredi, did not go through, in January Dubai Islamic Bank announced an increase in its shareholding in Turkish financial services provider TOM Group from 20% to 25%.
Meanwhile, Emirates NBD and FAB acted as coordinators and bookrunners on a $1.2bn loan for Turkiye Wealth Fund in March of this year. The sovereign fund raised a two-year syndicated loan from 20 banks.
Overseas expansion, mixed with continued domestic credit growth opportunities, should help UAE lenders maintain their recent performances – whatever global headwinds result from US President Donald Trump’s new era of trade barriers.
MEED’s May 2025 report on the UAE includes:
> GOVERNMENT & ECONOMY: UAE looks to economic longevity
> BANKING: UAE banks dig in for new era
> UPSTREAM: Adnoc in cruise control with oil and gas targets
> DOWNSTREAM: Abu Dhabi chemicals sector sees relentless growth
> POWER: AI accelerates UAE power generation projects sector
> CONSTRUCTION: Dubai construction continues to lead region
> TRANSPORT: UAE accelerates its $60bn transport push
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Exclusive from Meed
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Adnoc plans new offshore-to-onshore oil transport pipeline20 August 2026
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Contractors confirm Al-Maktoum airport people-mover award20 August 2026
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Saudi Arabia awards estimated $1bn phosphate rail deal20 August 2026
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UAE cuts trade and financial links with Iran19 August 2026
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20 August 2026
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company is moving ahead with an ambitious plan to build an oil pipeline network that will transport oil from its main offshore oil processing islands in the Gulf to its onshore crude export terminal in Jebel Dhanna, Abu Dhabi.
The planned pipeline network will source crude from Zirku Island and Das Island, where Adnoc gathers and treats oil produced at Abu Dhabi’s offshore fields, among other processing hubs, and transport those volumes across 300 kilometres inland to the Jebel Dhanna terminal.
According to sources, the proposed pipelines will eventually connect to the West-East crude pipeline network currently being built from Abu Dhabi’s Jebel Dhanna to the emirate of Fujairah, and is expected to be commissioned in 2027.
The Abu Dhabi energy giant has awarded a contract for concept studies and front-end engineering and design (feed) to Abu Dhabi-based NT Energies, a joint venture of Abu Dhabi-based contractor NMDC Energy and France’s Technip Energies, sources told MEED.
NT Energies is expected to carry out the concept studies and feed on a “fast-track basis”, with the work anticipated to take seven months, sources said.
A kick-off meeting between the client and the appointed consultant took place on 6 July, sources added.
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West-East oil pipeline
In May, Adnoc said it was accelerating work on the West-East crude transport pipeline project from Jebel Dhanna to Fujairah, upon directions from its board.
The West-East pipeline project involves constructing a cross-country pipeline to transport crude from Adnoc’s export terminal at Jebel Dhanna to the Fujairah terminal, covering a distance of about 520km.
The pipeline will double Adnoc’s crude export capacity through Fujairah on the Indian Ocean coast and enable shipments to bypass the geopolitically volatile Strait of Hormuz.
Crude will be sourced from Adnoc’s offshore processing centres at Das, Zakum and Umm Lulu islands before being stored at new storage facilities to be built at the Jebel Dhanna terminal.
The pipeline will be segmented into three sections:
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Adnoc awarded Egyptian contractor Engineering for Petroleum & Process Industries (Enppi) an engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCm) contract for the project in February 2024.
Adnoc’s total spend on EPCm works could be as high as $3bn, MEED previously reported.
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Contractors confirm Al-Maktoum airport people-mover award
20 August 2026
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A team of Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation and Indian contractor Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has confirmed that it has won a design-and-build contract for the automated people-mover (APM) system for phase one of Al-Maktoum International airport in Dubai.
In a statement released earlier today, L&T classified the contract as large, a term the company uses to denote an order value of $261m-$523m.
MEED exclusively reported in July that Dubai Aviation Engineering Projects (DAEP) had selected a contractor to deliver the APM system as part of the first phase of the $35bn expansion of the airport.
The APM system will serve as a critical facility for operations at Al-Maktoum International. The system will run under the apron of the entire airfield and the airport’s terminals. It will consist of several tracks, taking passengers from the terminals to the concourses.
Four underground stations will be built as part of the first phase. The overall plan includes 14 stations at the airport.
The firms submitted the bids for the project in July last year, as MEED exclusively reported.
The contract is the latest in a series of awards signed by DAEP recently. It has awarded contracts valued at about AED13bn ($3.5bn), with construction works currently under way on several airport packages.
These include enabling works, the second runway and the initial structural foundations for passenger terminals and gates.
Upcoming awards
In June, DAEP said that it will award contracts worth over AED55bn ($15bn) by the end of this year for construction works at Al-Maktoum International airport.
The projects slated for contract awards include the substructure works for the western passenger terminal, the fourth aircraft concourse building and the baggage handling system, in addition to the superstructure works for the western passenger terminal and the first, second and third aircraft concourses.
The packages also encompass long-span structural frameworks for buildings covering about 1.5 million square metres (sq m), infrastructure works for the southern airfield area and power generation and district cooling plants supporting the construction programme.
The award of the facade and roofing packages is also planned for this year.
Construction progress
In May last year, MEED exclusively reported that DAEP had awarded a AED1bn ($272m) deal to UAE firm Binladin Contracting Group to construct the second runway at the airport.
The enabling works on the terminal were awarded to Abu Dhabi-based Tristar E&C.
Construction on the project’s first phase is expected to be completed by 2032.
Construction of substructure works began in November last year, when DAEP formally selected a contractor to deliver the package.
The government approved the updated designs and timelines for its largest construction project in April 2024.
In a statement, the authorities said the plan is for all operations from Dubai International airport to be transferred to Al-Maktoum International within 10 years.
According to an official description on DAEP’s website, the expanded airport’s West Terminal will be a seven-level, 800,000 sq m facility with an annual capacity of 45 million passengers.
It will be the second of three terminals at the airport.
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Saudi Arabia awards estimated $1bn phosphate rail deal
20 August 2026
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Saudi Arabian Railways (SAR) has awarded an estimated SR4bn-plus ($1.1bn) contract to add another track to the first section of the existing phosphate transport railway network in the kingdom’s Eastern Province.
The contract was awarded to local firm Alomaier Trading & Contracting Company.
The scope includes track doubling, alignment modifications, utility bridges, culvert widening and hydrological structures, as well as the conversion of the AZ1 siding into a mainline track.
The scope also covers support for signalling and telecommunications systems.
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Switzerland-based engineering firm ARX is the project consultant.
The project is the first of four packages for the phosphate railway line that SAR is expected to award imminently.
In 2023, MEED reported that SAR was planning two projects to increase its freight capacity, including an estimated SR4.2bn ($1.1bn) project to install a second track on the North Train freight line and construct three new freight yards.
Formerly known as the North-South Railway, the North Train is a 1,550km-long freight line running from the phosphate and bauxite mines in the far north of the kingdom to the Al-Baithah junction. There, it diverges into a line southward to Riyadh and a second line running east to downstream fertiliser production and alumina refining facilities at Ras Al-Khair on the Gulf coast.
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Libya and Tunisia reschedule joint oil and gas licensing round
19 August 2026
The Libyan-Tunisian Joint Oil Exploration, Exploitation & Petroleum Services Company (Joint Oil) has rescheduled its planned licensing round for offshore exploration and development projects in a zone spanning the waters of both countries.
The bidding process is now due to open on 7 September 2026, with bid submissions due by 8 January 2027.
Previously, in May, Joint Oil said it planned to open the bid round on 1 August 2026.
The upcoming round will offer two oil and gas packages. The first is an exploration package across the 3,000-square-kilometre Joint Oil Block, in water depths of 80-120 metres.
Significant data is available on the geology of this area, including 6,500km of 2D and 1,900 square kilometres of 3D seismic data. Data also exists from a run of legacy wells dating to 1976.
The second package covers development of the Zarat discovery specifically. This is a gas-condensate reservoir straddling the boundary between Tunisia’s national acreage and the jointly-held Joint Oil Block.
Joint Oil is equally owned by Tunisia’s national oil company, ETAP, and OLA Energy Holdings, a subsidiary of the Libya Africa Investment Portfolio (LAIP).
LAIP is a subsidiary of Libya’s sovereign wealth institution, the Libya Investment Authority.
Joint Oil was established under a bilateral agreement between Libya and Tunisia in 1988 to explore and develop hydrocarbons in offshore areas shared by the two countries.
The key dates from the new schedule for the licensing round are:
- 7 September 2026: Bid round opens; qualified offshore operators can apply for access to the Virtual Data Room
- 9 September 2026: Joint Oil presents the opportunity at the MMEA Scout Group meeting in London
- 29-30 September 2026: Joint Oil presents at the World Energy Summit in London
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- 8 January 2027: Bid submissions due
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Texas-based Moyes & Co is acting as a strategic adviser on the licensing round.
Houston-headquartered Marathon discovered the Zarat field in 1992. It is estimated to hold around 0.4 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas and 50 million barrels of liquids.
A previous development project concept centred on a mobile production unit, worth around $1bn, tied back to the nearby Miskar platform.
Despite this, the field has remained undeveloped for over three decades.
One of the key challenges to developing the reserve is its high carbon dioxide content.
Joint Oil has run bid rounds for the acreage before without success, including as recently as late 2023.
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UAE cuts trade and financial links with Iran
19 August 2026
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The UAE has halted all trade, commercial exchanges and financial transactions with Iran until further notice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on 19 August.
The suspension has been imposed in light of escalations that undermine regional and international peace and security, the ministry said. It did not specify a timeframe for any resumption.
The ministry rejected allegations regarding the status of the economic relationship between the UAE and Iran, and restated the UAE's commitment to dialogue, cooperation and regional integration as means of advancing peace, stability and prosperity in the region.
It said the UAE remains committed to safeguarding the integrity of the financial system, in line with international law and global standards.
The suspension covers the full range of commercial and financial links between the two countries. The UAE has historically been one of Iran's most significant trading partners, with much of the relationship built on re-export trade routed through Dubai to Iranian ports across the Gulf.
The ministry statement did not detail the mechanism for enforcing the halt, the sectors affected, or arrangements for existing contracts and in-transit cargo.
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