JEDDAH, 14 July 2005 — Saudi Economic & Development Company (SEDCO) recently acquired 21.3 percent shareholding in Bank Muamalat Indonesia (BMI) through its third limited public offering. Among the major shareholders in BMI are the Islamic Development Bank, Boubyan Bank of Kuwait, Bank Rakyat of Malaysia, and prominent Indonesian investors such as H. Abbas Adhar, H. Abdul Rohim and M. Riza Ismael.
SEDCO is a major, innovative private investment company with a wide and diversified spectrum of financial, real estate and direct investments in Saudi Arabia and around the world. Its investment is in line with SEDCO’s mission of being a significant investor in emerging Islamic financial institutions and its pioneering role in bringing innovative investment products and services to Muslim investors.
BMI was established in 1991 as the first Shariah bank in Indonesia. It is headquartered in Jakarta and has a distribution network that includes 42 branches, 13 sub-branches, 83 cash offices, and 47 service points covering all provinces of Indonesia. The bank is engaged in retail and commercial banking and offers an array of products based on Islamic Shariah principles.
As of December 2004, the total assets of BMI amounted to $590 million, with a net profit of $5.4 million.
In late 2004, BMI received the “Most outstanding performance by an Islamic bank” award by Kuala Lumpur-based Islamic Finance Forum through the Center for Research & Training in cooperation with Dow Jones Indexes.