Kuwait-based Islamic investment company The Investment Dar is planning to market its $300-million syndicated Murabaha facility in Asia.

'The funds raised would finance The Investment Dar’s diversification into new areas of investment opportunities and strategic alliances, in addition to further the commercial development of businesses in its current sector groups of financing, asset management, real estate, banking, logistics and automotive,“ said company’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer Amr Abu Al-Saud.

'Having firmly established ourselves in Europe, we are targeting East Asia, to become a multi-sector global investment group', he said. 

'The Investment Dar's management and shareholders highly evaluate and appreciate the role played by both Standard Chartered (Saadiq) and HSBC (Amanah). This is another credit for them and for the Investment Dar, which would be added to their long list of achievements in Shariah-complaint capital and investment market,' said the company’s Chairman and Managing Director Adnan Al-Musallam.

'As a company that intends to lead the world of Islamic finance through continual innovation to meet our customers’ needs, we expect markets such as Singapore and Kuala Lumpur to play an important role in the future growth of Islamic finance,“ said Al-Musallam.

“As part of our on-going strategy, Investment Dar is seeking to not only diversify its global investor profile but to also target investment opportunities in regions such as Asia.  With its fast growing economies and high Islamic population, we believe the region offers significant potential for investment into areas such as financial services assets”, said Al-Musallam.

Recently, The Investment Dar announced third quarter results for 2007, which saw net profits for the period increasing by over 65.7 per cent to KD122.1 million ($436.7 million) against $263.6 million during the same period in 2006.

During the first nine months of 2007, TID's earning per share increased to $0.57.8, against $0.40.4 during the same period last year, a growth rate of 42.9 percent. The company's share book value increased during the same period to $1.9, against $1.6 in 2006, a growth rate of 19.7 percent.

The company enhanced its solvency, as the total assets rose to $4,624,9 million in the first nine months, an increase of 34.8 percent over the $3,430,0 million during the same period last year.

The shareholders' equity increased to $1,429,1 million, from $1,110,4 million during the same period of the previous year, a growth rate of 28.7 percent. The company’s revenues increased to $673,1 million, from $425,4 million in the same period in 2006. – TradeArabia News Service