Abu Dhabi government-owned Islamic lender Al Hilal Bank has appointed an interim chief executive.
Khaled AlKhoori has stepped down and been replaced by chief financial officer Craig Bell, on an acting basis, it said in a statement yesterday.
Mr AlKhoori was appointed in December 2015 “during a critical transitional phase” which included developing the bank’s 2020 strategy, to “initiate its execution, and implement an overall bank restructure”.
No further details were provided on the restructuring.
“Mr AlKhoori meticulously and successfully completed his task and he will be now moving to his next chapter,” the bank said. Mr Bell will be supported by “the newly appointed leadership team” which includes chief information officer Gopikrishnan Janakaraja and head of treasury banking Yousuf Sandeela, both appointed in August.
A permanent chief executive “will be announced in due course”, the bank said.
Al Hilal has been the subject of speculation that it could merge with one of its Abu Dhabi rivals.
Both Moody’s and Fitch ratings agencies have highlighted the lender’s weak profitability compared to the overall sector and its concentration of risks. The latter had caused the bank difficulties in 2014 and 2015, according to the rating agencies.
Al Hilal’s profit for last year’s second quarter fell almost 78 per cent to Dh28.2 million from Dh128m a year earlier as higher provisions and lower income from Islamic financing affected the bottom line.
The fall in oil prices to around half from their summer 2014 peak has affected the entire UAE banking sector’s rate of profitability as government deposits fell and slower economic activity impacted the SME sector.
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Ballon d’Or (Men’s)
Ousmane Dembélé (Paris Saint-Germain / France)
Ballon d’Or Féminin (Women’s)
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Gianluigi Donnarumma (Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City / Italy)
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Yahya Al Ghassani's bio
Date of birth: April 18, 1998
Playing position: Winger
Clubs: 2015-2017 – Al Ahli Dubai; March-June 2018 – Paris FC; August – Al Wahda
Our Time Has Come
Alyssa Ayres, Oxford University Press
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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'Tell the Machine Goodnight' by Katie Williams
Penguin Randomhouse
