On Thursday, the chief financial officer of Dubai's largest bank said it would be divesting its remaining ownership in Union Properties. Emirates NBD CFO Surya Subramanian said in a conference call that its 15% stake in Union Properties had a "available for sale" note on its books. Union Properties is a property developer based in Dubai. Emirates NBD had earlier sold a 32.6% ownership stake in Union Properties during the first nine months this year. The Dubai bank had earned AED 191 million or USD52 million from the sale.

Emirates NDB is the largest bank in the Middle East based on assets. The banking group was a consolidation of Emirates Bank and National Bank of Dubai, the second and the fourth largest banks in the United Arab Emirates. The merger resulted to a combined total asset valuation of AED282 billion as of 2008.

In its third-quarter earnings call earlier in the day, Emirates NDB disclosed that it an increase of 21% was noted in its profits. However, the profit recorded was lower than analysts' estimates as a 50% increase in year-on-year provisions was indicated.