Dubai: Dubai Islamic Insurance & Reinsurance Co., the United Arab Emirates-based insurer known as Aman, received a preliminary license from the regulator to open a unit in Syria.

“The Syrian Insurance Supervisory Commission will present the document to the Syrian cabinet for final approval,” Abdul Latif Abboud, general manager of the commission, said in a telephone interview from Damascus on Tuesday.

Abboud said that Aman, Sudan-based Al Salam Bank and individual Arab investors will own between 49 per cent and 60 per cent of the insurer and the rest will be sold to the Syrian public. The new unit will have capital of 1.3 billion Syrian pounds ($28 million), he added.

Aman is the fourth Islamic insurance company to enter the Syrian market after Kuwait-based Al Aqeelah Takaful Insurance Company, Noor Takaful Insurance and Syrian Qatar Takaful Insurance, Abboud said