Dana Gas selected for S&P Shariah Indices

Demand for Shariah-compliant products across all sectors has been increasing steadily over the past few years, and the financial markets are no exception. In 2006, in response to this growing demand and the urgent need for indices, Standard & Poor's introduced the S&P Shariah Indices.

Ratings Intelligence Partners (RI), a London/Kuwait-based consulting company specializing in solutions for the global Islamic investment market, provides the Shariah screens used and its team of qualified Islamic researchers work directly with a Shariah Supervisory Board to filter the stocks based on these screens.

Commenting on Dana Gas's inclusion in the indices, Dana Gas Executive Chairman Hamid Jafar said:

"We are delighted to have Dana Gas approved for inclusion in the S&P Pan Arab Shariah Index and the S&P GCC Shariah Index, as this indisputably establishes our Islamic credentials, and underlines our commitment to our investors and stakeholders to conduct all of our business in a Shariah-compliant manner."

The S&P Pan Arab Shariah Index includes stocks from listed companies in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and the UAE, with the underlying country indices being part of the S&P/IFCG emerging market indices. The S&P/IFCI GCC Indices six Shariah-compliant country indices (one for each of the GCC countries), a composite S&P/IFCI GCC Shariah Index that excludes Saudi Arabia, and a composite S&P/IFCG GCC Shariah Index that includes Saudi Arabia.

Earlier this year, Dana Gas announced that it had achieved Dhs581m revenues in the first half of 2008. This inclusion in the S&P Shariah Indices shows that even though it is currently undergoing rapid expansion, Dana Gas remains committed to upholding the highest Shariah standards in all of its business dealings. The company's well-publicised convertible sukuk offering in late 2007 was upsized twice to $1bn due to strong investor demand, both regionally and internationally.

The S&P Shariah Indices comprise leading equity indices that have been screened for Shariah compliance as per the standards observed by several Middle Eastern countries. All the indices are liquid and investable, and are periodically re-examined to ensure that they maintain their Shariah-compliant status. With the completion of the review of the S&P/Citigroup Global Broad Market Index (BMI), which consists of over 11,000 companies worldwide, for Shariah compliance in 2008, the Standard & Poor's series of Shariah indices became the most comprehensive in the industry, with the resultant S&P BMI Global Shariah index comprising nearly 6,000 constituents, along with 10 sector, and 52 country and regional sub-indices.