Mubasher: The National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) intends to expand in the Egyptian market and hire hundreds of people by opening more branches, as reported by Bloomberg.
Kuwait’s largest lender targets growth in the Middle East’s biggest markets, including Saudi Arabia as it will open in Riyadh and Dammam by the end of 2018 after opening its first branch in 2006, Bloomberg said.
NBK Egypt aims to have 60 branches across the country by 2020, up from its current 43 branches, and will open four or five in 2018, Bloomberg added.
“We started focusing our regional growth on more stable markets in the Middle East, namely GCC countries,” NBK’s CEO Isam Al Sager said in an interview in Cairo on Sunday, according to Bloomberg.
Al Sager added, “We have one operating branch in Saudi Arabia and just received required approvals to open two more branches in the kingdom.”
Some lenders are negotiating over a merger to create bigger banks in the region; in 2017, the National Bank of Abu Dhabi and First Gulf Bank combined to establish one of the region’s biggest lenders, First Abu Dhabi Bank.
NBK Egypt expects a growth of 20% in loans during 2018 as interest rates are expected to decline, in line with the forecast of a recovery in economic growth, according to Yasser Hassan, NBK’s managing director.
“A big part of that growth will come from lending to small- to medium-enterprises,” Bloomberg said.
