back to Pioneers of a burgeoning market
Profiles include:
Atif Abdulmalik
Chief executive, First Islamic Investment Bank
Atif Abdulmalik had been a highly successful executive at Investcorp, the Bahrain-based investment bank that has raised private-equity funds from wealthy families in the Middle East and invested it in corporate acquisitions and real estate projects, primarily in the US and Europe.
However, he took the bold decision to leave and take part in the creation in 1997 of First Islamic Investment Bank, which was created to conduct the same type of business, only on Islamic principles.
During his time as FIIB's chief executive, Abdulmalik, who is entrepreneurial and seemingly always flying off somewhere, has presided over a dramatic expansion in its activities.
The bank, which has its headquarters in Bahrain and a subsidiary based in Atlanta, Georgia, has completed more than $3 billion in transactions and its balance sheet is more than $500 million.
"Our bank was formed to take advantage of the growing interest in the Middle East for new and innovative financial products that are consistent with Islamic principles," says Abdulmalik. "It was our belief at the time, as it is today, that financial products can be designed to deliver a comprehensive and competitive range of risk-adjusted returns and liquidity, while maintaining compliance with Islamic principles."
One of the main reasons for Abdulmalik's success has been his ability to anticipate market developments, in particular the realization that it was necessary to diversity investments.
The overseas investments of Islamic banks have tended to be in the US, which is not only the world's largest and most open economy but also has the advantage that with a fixed rate between Gulf currencies and the dollar, there is no exchange rate risk.
However, FIIB was one of the first to see the opportunities in Europe, citing the creation of the euro, which made it easier to treat the EU as a single trading bloc, and the likely implementation of structural reforms.
This readiness to diversify is reflected in recent investments made by FIIB, which include the acquisition of a stake in French kitchens and bathrooms supplier Vogica, the purchase of a leading US home healthcare provider and the acquisition of a wind-farm company in the UK. In the Middle East, FIIB has recently announced golfing ventures in Bahrain (valued at $300 million) and Dubai.
Ahmed Mohammed Ali
President, Islamic Development Bank
Ahmed Mohammed Ali, president of the Islamic Development Bank, is a veteran financier in every sense of the word.
Aged 70 and a married man with four children, he has been in his present position at the IDB since its formation 23 years ago and has built a reputation for his careful and shrewd management of an organization whose primary role is to foster economic growth in developing Muslim countries.
Under the leadership of Ali, a Saudi Arabian who completed his education in the US and previously worked as a rector at King Abdulaziz University and was deputy minister of education for three years in the 1970s, the IDB has become one of the most respected multilateral institutions in the Middle East.
Under his direction, the organization has grown from a membership of 10 with $185 million for development into a body with 55 members and a multi-billion dollar budget – it now has an infrastructure fund worth $1.5 billion alone. Ratings agency Standard & Poor's has given the IDB a triple A long term and A-1+ short term issuer rating for the second year in a row.
That confidence was also demonstrated when the IDB successfully tapped the international markets last year with a $400 million sukuk, a complex deal involving portfolio securitization that was lead managed by Citibank.
Jassar Dakheel Al-Jassar
General manager, Kuwait Finance House
For many years, Kuwait Finance House (KFH) was the sleeping giant of Islamic finance. But it is now starting to fulfil its potential to develop not just in Kuwait but across the Middle East where it is involved in a growing number of increasingly sophisticated financings.
Now, with the local market opened up to competition, and under Al Jassar's leadership, there is a palpable mood of energy in the institution.
A thoughtful and softly spoken man, Al-Jassar has been general manager at KFH for the past four years. He is regarded as a versatile banker with great all-round experience. He is given considerable credit for the way he has prepared KFH to meet the competition in the corporate and personal sector that is certain to come from existing and newly established banks.
While at KFH, Al-Jassar has played an active role in developing innovative Islamic investment products and was also instrumental in structuring a number of corporate financings, including the landmark $1.2 billion Equate project financing. This brought Islamic and conventional banks into one deal together for the first time, setting the trend for many future transactions.
Sheikh Bahamdan
Chairman and managing director, National Commercial Bank
Under the leadership of Sheikh Abdullah Bahamdan, the chairman and managing director, the fortunes of National Commercial Bank of Jeddah, have been restored after several difficult years.
NCB has historically been a conventional bank but, in recent years, driven by the demands of its customers, it has expanded significantly into Islamic finance.
Almost all of its new retail lending is Islamically structured and it has the largest volume of Islamic funds under management. It also has more than 70 Islamic branches.
The bank, already the largest financial institution in Saudi Arabia, is now ideally positioned to take full advantage of the massive growth in demand for Islamic products in the Kingdom. Bankers expect this growth in Shariah structured finance to continue and accelerate in the next five years and some even predict it will match the size of the conventional market.