KARACHI: A meeting of the board of directors of Bank Al-Falah is being held in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, which would consider the proposal of Shaukat Tareen regarding merger-acquisition of Silk Bank by Bank Al-Falah, sources said. Bank Al-Falah President Sirajuddin Aziz has flown to Abu Dhabi to attend the meeting, sources told The News on Friday. Abu Dhabi Group Chief Executive Officer Bashir A Tahir and his younger brother Pervez A Shahid, member board of directors, who were quite against this merger-acquisition, have resigned. The sources said that the meeting of the board, despite resignation of these two brothers, hints that the deal would be finalised. Analysts said that Silk Bank, which was facing capital adequacy ratio (CAR) issue, would be the prime beneficiary of this scheme. In 9MCY10, Bank Al-Falah posted flat earnings of Rs1.5 billion. However, ex-Warid impairment the recurring earning per share growth jumps to 18 percent. The net interest income grew by 23 percent to Rs9.95 billion against Rs8.1 billion. Credit provisions were reported at Rs1.3 billion in September, which were significantly lower against Rs2.1 billion during the corresponding period last year, while the non-performing loans (NPLs) coverage was low at 56 percent. “Al-Falah has the lowest NPL to gross loans ratio in the peer group, but its capital is materially impaired by a large portfolio of un-provided NPLs,” said Ahmed Raza Khan, an analyst at IGI Securities. Silk Bank has a total capitalisation of Rs73 billion and is facing difficulties to fulfill minimum capital requirement of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). Recently, Abu Dhabi Group, the major sponsors in Bank Al-Falah sold 20 percent stakes in the United Bank Limited (UBL) for an estimated $225 million.