The Investment Dar to market $300m syndicated murabaha facility in Asia

In a press statement made after an Asian marketing tour in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur by senior members of The Investment Dar's management, together with the underwriters, Standard Chartered (Saadiq) and HSBC (Amanah), the Investment Dar's Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Amr Abu Al-Saud said that the funds raised would finance The Investment Dar's diversification of its operations into new areas of investment opportunities and strategic alliances, in addition to further the commercial development of businesses in its current sector groups of financing, asset management, real estate, banking, logistics and automotive.

He explained that the marketing of its murabaha loan facility comes as The Investment Dar seeks to accelerate its global strategy of regional and international expansion. "Having firmly established ourselves in Europe, we are targeting East Asia, to become a multi-sector global investment group", he said.

Commenting on this event, the Investment Dar's Chairman and Managing Director, Adnan Al-Musallam, said,

"The Investment Dar's management and shareholders highly evaluate and appreciate the role played by both Standard Chartered (Saadiq) and HSBC (Amanah). This is another credit for them and for the Investment Dar, which would be added to their long list of achievements in Shariah-complaint capital and investment market."

Mr. Al-Musallam stressed the leading role of the Investment Dar in Islamic finance and added, " As a company that intends to lead the world of Islamic finance through continual innovation to meet our customers' needs, we expect markets such as Singapore and Kuala Lumpur to play an important role in the future growth of Islamic finance.

"As part of our on-going strategy, Investment Dar is seeking to not only diversify its global investor profile but to also target investment opportunities in regions such as Asia. With its fast growing economies and high Islamic population, we believe the region offers significant potential for investment into areas such as financial services assets", said Mr. Al-Musallam.

Most recently, The Investment Dar announced 3rd Quarter year results for 2007, which saw net profits for the period increasing by over 65.7% to KD122.1m ($436.7m) against $263.6m during the same period in 2006.

During the first nine months of 2007, TID's earning per share increased to $0.57.8, against $0.40.4 during the same period last year, a growth rate of 42.9%. The Company's share book value increased during the same period to $1.9, against $1.6 in 2006, a growth rate of 19.7%.

All other Company indices significantly improved during the first nine months of the current year. The Company enhanced its solvency, as the total assets rose to $4,624,9m, an increase of 34.8% over the $3,430,0m during the same period in 2006.

The shareholders' equity increased to US$1,429,1 million, from $1,110,4m during the same period of the previous year, a growth rate of 28.7%. The company's revenues increased to $673,1m, from $425,4m in the same period in 2006.

These outstanding results coincide with the Dar receiving a number of international recognitions, the last of which was the award for the best investment company in the Middle East and the award for the best Shariah-compliant finance deal worldwide, in recognition of Dar's contribution to developing Islamic finance instruments, at the forefront of which was the Aston Martin acquisition. These two awards are a part of the annual prizes allocated by World Finance Magazine, covering the banking and finance sectors.