Qatar Islamic Bank

On April 12, Vodafone Qatar offered to sell off 40 percent of its share capital through an initial public offering to Qatari retail and institutional investors. As one of the country’s most prominent deals so far this year, interest from banks and financial institutions to handle the transaction was unsurprisingly high.

A measure of its solid reputation, Qatar Islamic Bank was brought in as a joint lead manager to the issue, joint financial adviser and joint lead receiving bank. Its role was to oversee the IPO, which saw Vodafone Qatar issuing 338.16 million ordinary shares to investors.

Before taking the lead on that deal, Qatar Islamic Bank announced record profits for 2008 following strong growth last year. The bank reported a 30.8 percent profit growth to $439m, while its finance portfolio reached $4.94bn – a 60.7 percent rise compared with the previous year. The growth was attributed to expansion in retail and corporate banking, and a strong management team and board.