A&O, Clifford Chance on Abu Dhabi banks deal

Allen & Overy (A&O), Clifford Chance and White & Case have advised on the Abu Dhabi Government's 16bn AED (£2.98bn) bail-out of five local banks.

Clifford Chance advised the Abu Dhabi Government on its tier 1 capital injection into the emirate's banks. Capital markets partner Simon Sinclair in London and Abu Dhabi capital markets partner Chris Walsh led the Clifford Chance team.

A&O advised four of the five financial institutions, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, First Gulf Bank, National Bank of Abu Dhabi and Union National Bank.

The A&O team was led by Abu Dhabi managing partner Ibrahim Mubaydeen, Dubai head of capital markets Anzal Mohammed and London Islamic finance partner Roger Wedderburn-Day. They were assisted by Islamic finance associate Paul Phelps.

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank is understood to have been advised by White & Case.

A&O's Mohammed said: "The fact is that in the UAE [United Arab Emirates] these deals are the first non-convertible tier 1 securities. There's been a tier 1 convertible done previously, but in terms of non-convertible instruments these are the first deals.

"The other thing is that in terms of pumping liquidity into regional banks, this may actually start a trend with other governments in the region which may start to do likewise."

Clifford Chance and White & Case declined to comment.

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