Albaraka reveals $300mn Asia expansion

Albaraka Banking Group (ABG) is to invest $300 million in fast-growth Asian markets within the next two to three years, the company’s president said after announcing major boosts in the Bahrain-based Islamic bank’s half-yearly results.

ABG President Adnan Ahmed Yousif said the banking group would be investing in Indonesia, Malaysia and India, its first strategic expansion outside the Middle East and Africa, quoted the Bahrain Times.

“The Group has started to implement its ambitious plans to increase its operations and activities in its existing markets as well as in new markets,” said Shaikh Saleh Abdulla Kamel, billionaire Saudi businessman and ABG chairman, in a statement.

The banking group, which operates in ten countries, on Sunday reported strong growth in its total operating income of $197.11 million for the first six months of 2007, jumping 33% from $148.54 million in the same period last year.

Net income grew by 117% to reach $120.97 million for the first six months of 2007, compared to $55.70 million the previous year.

ABG’s total assets as of the end of last June were $8.64 billion, compared with $6.65 billion as at the end of June 2006, an increase of 30%. Total financing and investments grew by 24% from $4.6 billion to $5.7 billion during the same period.

Yousif said the positive results were as achieved directly as a “result of the steps we took to capitalise the subsidiaries of the group, effect overall improvements in staffing, technology and controls, in addition to our success in unifying the group’s strategic direction".

"We announced the merger of al Amin and Al Baraka Islamic banks, two subsidiaries of ABG, in an integrated financial institution with over $600 million in total assets,” Yousif said in the statement.

“We also announced our opening of a representative office in Indonesia as well as obtaining the approval of the Syrian authorities to establish a banking subsidiary in Syria with a capital of $100 million.”

ABG, which is listed on the Bahrain and Dubai stock exchanges, currently has subsidiary banking units in Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, South Africa, Sudan, Tunisia, Turkey and Pakistan.

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