DUBAI — Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) PJSC yesterday said it expects to lead up to $5 billion worth of financing transactions across a broad spectrum of products in 2007.
The bank, which reported Dh1.56 billion in net profit for the year ended December 31, 2006, an increase of 47 per cent compared to Dh1.06 billion for the year ended December 31, 2005, has a wide range of retail, corporate and investment banking products, which endow it with a leading edge in the areas of investment banking and advisory services.
Omair Mooraj, managing director of Millennium Capital, the investment banking unit of Dubai Islamic Bank, said the DIB which has been instrumental in providing innovative structural financing solutions geared to meet different needs of large projects and of institutions in the UAE as well across the world expects to lead between $4 and $5 billion financing transactions.
He said the interest in sukuks is from both conventional and Islamic institutions since the pricing on them is better than on loans. Speaking at an event to announce the third World Islamic Economic Forum, Mooraj said the bank's sukuks would be sold in the Middle East, Europe, Asia and the U.S.
In 2006, DIB's achievements included cementing its position as the world's premier Islamic finance house with a string of transactions, culminating in the world's biggest $3.52 billion sukuk for the Nakheel Group. The total sukuks raised by DIB amounted to more than $15 billion. The figure accounts for almost 70 per cent of all Capital Market (sukuk and conventional bonds) funding for public sector entities in the Emirates in the last two years.
Sales of Islamic bonds by companies and governments in the Middle East may increase at an average annual rate of 45 per cent over the next five years, Moody's Investors Service said last year. A record $16.8 billion of sukuks were sold worldwide in 2006, surpassing the $7.6 billion issued in a year earlier.
The third World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF), a platform to explore business initiatives and cooperation among Muslim nations and between Muslims and non-Muslims, will be held  in Kuala Lumpur on May 27-29 2007.
Dr. Dato Michael Yeoh, CEO, WIEF Foundation said, the success of the WIEF underscored the need for cooperation and understanding to attain economic success. "With the Muslim business community emerging as a global force in various industry sectors, it is important that this momentum is given a clear-cut direction that will promote peace in general, and the interest of developing Muslim countries. The WIEF is an ideal venue to achieve this vision, where global leaders and leading thinkers meet to discuss and devise ways to align economic initiatives with social issues to support sustainable development."
For the third edition, WIEF will take a closer look at the fast emerging economies of China and India, which both have large Muslim minorities.
"The WIEF will be a venue to develop strategies for collaboration, finding ways to bolster economic partnerships with the West as well as the growing markets in China and India. China and India's rapidly developing industries find increasing reliance to the Muslim World's vast resources such as petroleum and edible oil. WIEF will provide the platform for Muslim countries to effectively capitalise on the new business opportunities offered by emerging markets," said Syed Abu Bakar, Trustee, WIF