Naseej Promoter Shareholders sign formal agreement to create BD180m closed joint stock company in December

The signing ceremony, held at the Ithmaar Bank offices in Bahrain, comes just over a week after Ithmaar Bank Chairman Khalid Abdulla-Janahi announced that, following Central Bank of Bahrain instructions, plans for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) for Naseej would be postponed and that the Promoter Shareholders together with other Founding Shareholders would, in the meanwhile, establish the company themselves.

Ithmaar Bank Co-CEO Mohammed Hussain said:

"The Naseej Promoter Shareholders Agreement, which was signed by the Promoter Shareholders, formalises our commitment to push ahead with what we believe to be an exceptionally promising opportunity. The Agreement includes plans to incorporate Naseej with an issued and paid-up capital of BD180 million next month and start operations in January next year."

"The Naseej Founding Shareholders recognise the tremendous opportunities at hand and we are all, collectively, eager to capitalise on them," said Hussain. "We already have office space allocated at the Bahrain Financial Harbour and, with this agreement now in place, we are all but set to start," he said.

Present at the signing ceremony were representatives of the Social Insurance Organization, Gulf Finance House, Abu Dhabi Investment House, Ithmaar Bank, Ithmaar Development Company, Palm Capital, Eskan Bank, Khaleeji Commercial Bank, Shamil Bank and BBK.

The establishment of Naseej, the region's first fully integrated real estate and infrastructure solutions provider, will contribute directly to addressing one of the Kingdom's most pressing socio-economic challenges, that of affordable housing.

"This signing ceremony takes us a significant step closer towards the establishment of what will certainly prove to be a truly pioneering venture," said Ithmaar Development Company Chief Executive Officer, Mohammed Khalil Alsayed.

"Naseej will leverage its size to manage the entire spectrum of the construction and real estate business, from the initial planning stages, to the manufacture of building materials, design, project management, and marketing advisory services for developments as well as building, construction and facility management," said Alsayed. "In doing so it will create unprecedented synergies that will help provide, among other things, affordable housing solutions to the general public," he said.

Following the signing ceremony, Social Insurance Organization Chief Executive Officer Shaikh Mohammed bin Isa Al Khalifa, said he was pleased with progress and particularly optimistic about the way forward.

"We have long maintained that Public Private Partnerships make for singularly powerful success stories and make particularly efficient contributions to national development," said Shaikh Mohammed Al Khalifa. "Naseej is a perfect example of a classic win-win: private investors partnering with public institutions to create much needed solutions for pressing socio-economic challenges - and, in the process, capitalising on a pronounced market need to ensure significant returns on investment," he said.

Gulf Finance House (GFH) Deputy Chief Executive Officer Mehran Jamsheer, who was also present at the signing ceremony, said plans to create the region's first fully integrated real estate and infrastructure solutions provider were a perfect fit for GFH's longstanding business philosophy.

"GFH specializes in the identification and development of initiatives that unlock opportunity and help to accelerate economic growth. We've built a formidable reputation as one of the most successful and innovative Islamic investment banks in the Middle East," said Jamsheer. "We are proud of our strong track record in the conception and delivery of high value economic infrastructure projects. Therefore, we see tremendous potential in being part of the Naseej proposition," he said.

"The Naseej Founding Shareholders comprise leading regional institutions, real estate players, financial institutions both in the conventional and Islamic banking space, mortgage and affordable housing institutions and High Net-Worth Individuals (HNWI) with expertise in the real estate sector who will all provide long-term benefits to the Company," said Jamsheer. "We have every reason to be confident about the company's future," he said.

"Affordable housing is, clearly, the need of the hour - and we really need to capitalise on the opportunity before it is too late," said BBK Chief Executive Officer AbdulKarim Bucheery. "The synergy that will be created by Naseej will certainly contribute towards making affordable housing more viable and, by virtue of its particularly wide service base, Naseej will also allow its shareholders to realise both cost cutting measures and, consequently, profit margins at every stage of the long, often complex processes that keep the real estate and infrastructure industries buoyant," he said.