UAE’s NBAD CEO Declines Comment On Citigroup’s Egypt Consumer Unit

The chief executive of National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) declined to comment on Wednesday on whether his bank had bid for the Egyptian consumer unit of Citigroup.

The United Arab Emirates’ largest lender was one of 10 bidders for the business put up for sale by the U.S. bank in October, a source told Reuters earlier this month.

“If acquisitions come at the right price and are integrational in a quick period of time, we will look at them,” Alex Thursby added more generally about acquisitions in a conference call with reporters.

NBAD expects continued net interest margin compression in 2015, dependent on the amount of liquidity in the market.

“There’s a possibility that liquidity will start disappearing or reducing in the second half (of 2015), particularly in U.S. dollars,” he said.