By Andrei Skvarsky.
Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank and a top bank in the Gulf, National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), have reached an agreement to cooperate in trade financing, loan syndication, client support and investment banking.
“Access to new financial markets is an integral part of our international strategy,” a Sberbank statement quoted the Russian firm’s head of financial institutions, Alexander Dementyev, as saying in comments on a memorandum of understanding between the two institutions.
“I am happy to say that the Memorandum is based on an executed transaction – we have recently closed a club deal involving large investment [by] the National Bank of Abu Dhabi,” he said in reference to a recent pledge from a group of leading Middle East banks to lend $300m to Sberbank for providing some of its clients with cash for trade operations.
“Our clients find the Russian market attractive, but are cautious about investing in it,” said Vineet Varma, global head of financial institutions at NBAD, which is the largest bank in the United Arab Emirates, operates in 19 countries across five continents, and has a declared plan to have a presence in 41 nations by 2021.
“With Sberbank’s support, we hope to help them find favourable opportunities. As far as we know, Russian entrepreneurs are also interested in finding reliable partners in the Middle East, and we are happy to offer them our high-quality services,” Varma said.
Since 2009, Global Finance magazine has ranked NBAD as one of the world’s 50 safest banks and the safest bank in the Middle East.
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