Brookfield to buy 60% of First Abu Dhabi Bank’s payment arm

Brookfield Asset Management signed an agreement to buy 60 per cent of the payments business of First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) at a $1.15bn valuation.

FAB, which completed the carve-out of its Magnati payments business into a fully-owned subsidiary in April, will retain a 40 per cent stake. The sale adds to a flurry of dealmaking in the payments industry, with banks seeking to offload operations as they struggle to compete with specialist providers.

Dubai-based Mashreqbank is also exploring a sale of its payments business in a deal that could value the division at around $500m, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg last week.

Brookfield is an active investor in the Middle East and is among parties that made first-round bids for a minority stake in Kuwaiti conglomerate Alshaya Group’s Starbucks Corp. franchise. The Canadian investor was the frontrunner to acquire Magnati, Bloomberg reported this month.

FAB, the UAE’s largest lender, has a market value of about $60bn. It’s separately bid for a majority stake in EFG-Hermes, valuing the firm at $1.2bn, in what’s likely to be the biggest acquisition yet in Egypt by the lender.