MANAMA, 3 June 2007 — Al Baraka Banking Group BSC (ABG), a Bahrain-based Islamic banking group, intends to expand further its presence in international markets by setting up a representative office in Indonesia. “The necessary regulatory approvals have been received recently from Bank Indonesia, the country’s central bank,” ABG said over the weekend.
Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world, estimated at 220 million. It has a growing commercial and economic relationship with the Arab and Islamic worlds, while internally it has witnessed positive economic financial developments giving rise to an excellent investment environment. “All these factors encourage major Islamic financial institutions to open offices in Indonesia to serve the Muslim community there and contribute toward facilitating trade flow between that country and the Arab world,” ABG Chairman Saleh Kamel said.
“The successful IPO which increased the equity of ABG Group from $566 million to about $1 billion, has enabled the group to expand further into new international markets. The expansion plans include a number of new markets such as Malaysia, Indonesia, India, China and Syria, aside from certain Gulf states,” he added.
“The ABG is firmly building up its regional and international presence according to a clear and well thought out strategic vision. The group is also expanding the range of the banking products and services that it offers to clients, capitalizing on increased financial resources,” said ABG President and Chief Executive Adnan Ahmed Yousif.
“We look forward to continuing our achievements in 2007, as well as the work which we started since the inception of the group, namely building a strong banking group capable of maximizing the benefits from enhancing the business between the banking units affiliated to the group and from teaming up to form strategic alliances with a view to realizing our mission which is to make ABG a leading Islamic banking group at the international level,” he added.
The group’s $31 million net income for the first quarter of 2007 is an indication of its success in this regard. “This performance was the result of focusing our efforts on a unified business strategy for the group and is in line with a number of measures that we have taken to enhance the financial resources of the group, improve the operating environment in terms of human resources, technologies and control, as well as support from our subsidiary,” he added.
The investment grade rating obtained by ABG from Standard & Poor’s (S&P) will further increase the confidence of investors and customers in the group’s future business strategies, something that an international bank must possess. “This rating will further confirm the soundness of ABG’s capital adequacy ratio and financial position,” Yousif said, adding that this rating will enable ABG to target the international market with greater ease and confidence and secure attractive pricing in its efforts to raise finance.
