Qatar bank plans US$300m shipping fund in Malaysia

BALI: Qatar Islamic Bank SAQ, the Gulf state's biggest syariah-compliant lender, plans to set up a US$300 million (US$1 = RM3.21) shipping fund in Malaysia through its Asian Finance Bank unit in the next two months to tap growth in the region."We are in the process of getting approval from the regulators in Malaysia," Asian Finance's chief executive officer Faisal Alshowaikh said in an interview from Bali. "We will come up to the market very soon," he said.Qatar Islamic and rivals including Kuwait Finance House, the world's second-largest Islamic bank, have been lured to Malaysia by the tax breaks and incentives for Islamic financial products. The nation also introduced an RM840 million shariah-compliant exchange-traded fund, the first of its type in Asia, in January.About 30 per cent of the Islamic shipping fund will be raised from equity, and the remaining 70 per cent will be generated through bank financing, Alshowaikh said. He didn't elaborate.
Asian Finance also plans to start a US$500 million property fund in 2009 that will invest in Southeast Asia to tap growth in the region's real estate market, Alshowaikh said. He is seeking to raise funds from investors in the Middle East."Investors are looking at Southeast Asia aggressively, and we will help them diversify," he said. "The property market in Malaysia is undervalued compared to neighbouring countries."Asian Finance began operations in Malaysia in January 2007. It also has a representative office in Jakarta, he said.In another development, Ithmaar Development Co, a unit of the Bahraini Islamic lender, Ithmaar Bank BSC, and partners created a US$500 million fund to invest in the property markets of Latin American states.Ithmaar, Kuwait-based Al Safat Investment Co and Bahrain- based Arabian Ventures will use the five-year syariah-compliant fund to invest in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Chile Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela, the partners said in an e-mailed statement on Wednesday. - Bloomberg