INDONESIA - BANKING - ABG net income surges 10 per cent to $

www.gulf-daily-news.com - MANAMA: Al Baraka Banking Group (ABG) managed to weather the storm of both international and regional turmoil to move ahead last year.

And the Bahrain-based Islamic bank is now looking to expand its operations into Indonesia, China and India as part of its medium-term strategy to enter into large and promising markets where it can offer innovative services and products.

Yesterday it announced that it achieved a net income of $212 million last year, an increase of 10 per cent on the income achieved in 2010.  (source)

INDONESIA - BANKING - Albaraka Banking Group ABG confirms interest in Indonesian market

Businessweek.com - Sept. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Albaraka Banking Group BSC and its unit in Turkey may raise a total of $500 million in Islamic bonds this year, Chief Executive Officer Adnan Ahmed Yousif said.

Albaraka Turk Katilim Bankasi AS, the Shariah-compliant Turkish unit of the bank, may sell about $200 million in sukuk by November, while the Bahrain-based parent may raise about $300 million from a similar sale by the end of the year, Yousif said in an interview in Washington today.  (source)

BANKING - Gulf banks tackling Shariah disputes to boost investment

Arabian Gulf banks say they are more ready to accept Asian Islamic debt as Shariah-compliant, allowing them to invest in a market that has issued twice as much sukuk as the Middle East this year.

Institutions from the two regions are working to overcome differences over whether southeast Asian notes comply with Islam’s ban on interest, according to Albaraka Banking Group, Bahrain’s biggest publicly traded lender, and Asian Finance Bank, the Malaysian arm of Qatar Islamic Bank. Last year, Saudi Arabia’s Al Rajhi Group helped Cagamas Bhd, Malaysia’s largest mortgage holder, structure a sukuk after Gulf investors balked at debt sold by the same issuer in 2009. (source)

BANKING - Indonesia Targets Persian Gulf to Boost Assets: Islamic Finance

Indonesia's Foreign Ministry and central bank are seeking investment from the Persian Gulf to meet its target of increasing Shariah-compliant banking assets by 35 percent this year.

The delegation may meet officials in the Middle East as soon as this month, with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait the most likely destinations, Mulya Siregar, the Jakarta-based director of Islamic services at Bank Indonesia, said in a May 31 interview. (source)

OPINION - MALAYSIA - Where is Malaysia's mega Islamic bank?

Industry executives agree in private that there are too many Islamic banks in Malaysia with a population of 27 million. This means that local Islamic banks, ideally, can merge and become bigger entities that can grow across borders.

 

IT LOOKS like we probably have to wait a little bit longer to find out who will win the two licences to set up mega Islamic banks in Malaysia. With a requirement of at least US$1 billion (RM3 billion) in capital, the announcement has been delayed since last year.

The two are set to be foreign-owned. News reports have talked about Bahrain's Al Baraka Banking Group's plan to head a group that will launch a US$10 billion (RM30 billion) Islamic bank.(full story)

BANKING - Bahrain's Baraka to buy Indonesian bank in 2011

Bahraini Islamic lender Al Baraka plans to buy an Indonesian bank this year for around $100m and has identified up to four possible options, its chief executive said on Tuesday.

"We sent in early February a delegation...to follow up on our expansion plans in Indonesia. I think the Indonesian market is a good market," Adnan Yousif said.

"We want to buy a bank. We have looked into several options and now we have three or four banks that we are eyeing, from which we will buy one bank."

"It is a classical bank and we will turn it into an Islamic bank. Our budget for that is around $100m...it will be [finalised] in the third quarter of this year," Yousif said. (full story)

BANKING - Gulf lenders eye Indonesia acquisitions (ABG - QIB - AFB - StanChart saadiq)

Dubai: Albaraka Banking Group and Qatar Islamic Bank aim to acquire Sharia-compliant lenders in Indonesia as the central bank estimates the nation's Islamic assets will increase by as much as 55 per cent this year.

Albaraka, Bahrain's biggest publicly traded bank, plans to spend $100 million on an acquisition, Chief Executive Officer Adnan Ahmad Yousuf said in a March 28 interview in Istanbul. (full story)

BANKING - Kamel re-elected ABG chairman (plans Indonesia)

Saleh Abdullah Kamel 

By MAHMOOD RAFIQUE | ARAB NEWS

Published: Mar 24, 2011 23:00 Updated: Mar 24, 2011 23:00

MANAMA: The shareholders of the AlBaraka Banking Group re-elected Saleh Abdullah Kamel as the group’s chairman of the for another three year term during a meeting held at Sheraton Hotel on Wednesday. The shareholders’s meeting was attended by 91% of the group’s total shareholding.

The meeting also approved the payment of the dividend of $118.57 million for the year 2010 and shareholders discussed at the ordinary meeting the report submitted by the board of directors on the group’s activities during the financial year. (full story)

BANKING - ABG Albaraka to spend US 50 million in Indonesia

Albaraka cuts size of March sukuk

Albaraka Banking Group reduced the size of a March sukuk programme to $250 million.

Dubai:  Albaraka Banking Group reduced the size of a March sukuk programme to $250 million (Dh918 million)-$300 million from the planned $500 million, Chief Executive Officer Adnan Ahmad Yousuf said. (source)

BANKING - Al-Baraka plans up to $500 million sukuk in Q1 2011 - Indonesia first priority now

BEIRUT: Bahraini Islamic lender Al-Baraka will issue up to $500 million in Islamic bonds in the first quarter of 2011, its chief executive said Thursday.

“We will issue sukuk in 2011 for the group in Bahrain between $200 and $500 million,” Adnan Yousif told Reuters on the sidelines of a banking conference in Beirut.

“It is a medium-term sukuk for five years and it will help financial institutions to attract new clients to take part in these sukuk,” he added.

BANKING - Appointment: Al Baraka (Pakistan) appoints CEO - Agressive growth in Malaysia and Indonesia in the pipeline

Karachi - Shafqaat Ahmed has been appointed first president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Al Baraka Bank (Pakistan) Limited.

According to an announcement here on Monday, Ahmed has been assigned the task of heading the bank which was formed recently on October 29 through the merger of Al Baraka Islamic Bank and Emirates Global Islamic Bank. The newly constituted board held its first meeting on Monday.

BANKING - DRB, Al Baraka call off talks on Malaysia's Muamalat-report - still plans for Indonesia

(Reuters) - Malaysian autos-to-banking conglomerate DRB-Hicom Bhd (DRBM.KL) has ended talks to sell a stake in Bank Muamalat Malaysia to Bahrain's Al Baraka Banking Group BARKA.BH, a newspaper reported on Thursday.