Dubai - MENA Herald: Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor, Chairman, Al Habtoor Group met with Abdulaziz Al-Helaissi, the new Chief Executive Officer of Gulf National Bank (GIB) on Thursday, March 3, 2016.
Al-Helaissi, a 26 year banking veteran, joined GIB as CEO in February this year. Prior to that he was Deputy Governor for Supervision at the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) where he was responsible for overseeing SAMA’s regulation and supervision of the country’s entire banking, insurance and financial sector.
Al-Helaissi was accompanied by G.V. Subramaniam, Vice President, GIB (Abu Dhabi), and Ravi Krishnan, EVP and Head of Wholesale Banking, GIB. Also present from the Al Habtoor Group was Mohammed Al Habtoor, Vice-Chairman and CEO, KP Rajan, Group Financial Advisor and Chin Poh Kueh, Director of Finance.
They discussed the banking sector in the UAE, and potential business cooperation.
The Al Habtoor has witnessed extensive growth in recent years. The Group now owns a total of 14 hotels; seven in the UAE and seven abroad. It recently added London and Vienna properties to its international property portfolio.
Al Habtoor said, “We are expanding significantly both internationally and at home. We will soon open the remaining two hotels within Al Habtoor City, and are also developing a polo resort in Dubailand, in addition to a new Metropolitan Hotel on Sheikh Zayed Road.”
In addition, Al Habtoor Motors has expanded into Saudi Arabia, and opened the first-ever Bentley Café in Dubai. The Al Habtoor Group also has a rapidly growing real estate division, a car leasing unit, publishing arm and owns two international schools.
GIB is a pan-GCC universal bank specializing in corporate and investment banking.
