FAB Buys Bahrain's Yasira to Build Out Fund Administration

First Abu Dhabi Bank has bought Yasira Financial Services outright, taking the whole of the Bahrain-based firm. The price was not made public. Both sides signed on a 100 percent stake.

Yasira handles fund administration and trust work. Its clients run money in listed securities, buyouts, early-stage ventures and property. On the private side, the firm looks after what investors have pledged, draws them down for deals, tracks how capital is split, produces the financial reports and pays out returns as holdings are sold.

The purchase gives FAB a fund administration arm to sit alongside the custody, cash management and foreign exchange services it already sells. Fund managers will be able to buy more of that from one provider.

Pantelis (Linos) D. Lekkas, who leads investment banking and markets at FAB, said keeping Yasira's existing clients steady comes first, with spending on the platform, staff and products to follow as the business scales.

He said the merged operation would offer "greater regional scale and local market expertise" to managers working through complicated fund structures spread across several jurisdictions.

greater regional scale and local market expertise

Yasira will take the FAB name and be absorbed into the bank's securities services division.

The deal points to a push by Gulf banks into the unglamorous plumbing of asset management. Fund administration is fee-based, sticky and grows with every new vehicle a manager launches. Buying an established licensed operator in Bahrain gives FAB a client book and local regulatory footing faster than building one.