Shamil Bank's first Pan GCC Islamic Equity Fund presented at lunch meeting

Over 400 people were invited to attend the luncheon by Shamil Bank who launched the fund managed by Securities and Investment Company (SICO) and Gulf Clearing Company (GCC) the custodian and registrars of the Fund. The launch followed a signing ceremony and press conference, which took place at the end of May 2005. Shamil Bank's, Group Head of Private Banking, Mr Jamal Tartir made a presentation about the fund at the meeting.

Mr Tartir in announcing the launch of the Al-Aseel Islamic Equity Fund said: "Shamil Bank has taken this innovative step to create an open-ended Fund allowing customers to invest in a portfolio of select Sharia'a compliant equity securities listed on the stock exchanges of GCC countries. Using a research driven approach towards identifying and investing in attractively valued stocks, the Fund has the objective of producing investment returns over the medium to long term. The Fund's investments are selected with strict adherence to Sharia'a investment guidelines and are supervised by an independent Sharia'a supervisory board."

The Al Aseel Islamic Fund is a regulated financial product authorised by the Bahrain Monetary Agency (BMA) and adds to the breadth of investment opportunities offered to Shamil's client base. It is expected to perform well under sound investment management coupled with the projected medium term buoyant oil prices as well as adequate corporate fundamentals which should all lead to the fund fulfilling its objectives.

During the 2001 to 2004 period, GCC equity markets produced superior returns compared to leading global and emerging market equity indexes, demonstrating a low correlation to global equity markets performance. With the strong development currently being undertaken in all GCC markets, they continue to demonstrate the potential for medium to long-term growth combined with the benefits of low currency risk in a tax-free environment.

Shamil Bank's activities cover a wide range of Sharia'a compliant retail, commercial, private and investment banking product and services. In September 2004, Capital Intelligence, a leading rating agency, upgraded the Bank's foreign currency long term rating from BB+ to an investment grade of BBB-, attributing the upgrade to the healthy growth of the Bank's operating income; continued reduction in non-performing assets and last but not least the strong support of DMI the parent company.