IslamicFinance.de

Noor Islamic Bank PJSC issued a statement saying that their Tunisian representative office is operational and that they continue to explore market opportunities in North Africa, while assessing regional market trends and having to readjust plans to reflect the reality of the slowdown.

The statement followed news announcing the closure of the rep office by some media.

Noor Islamic Bank closes its representative office in Tunis. The decision shall be taken as expansion plans have been revisited towards focussing on the Gulf region.

Addendum: Noor Islamic Bank denied the closure of the rep office in a press release.

Noor Islamic Bank topped the 2008 Bloomberg list of leading Sharia’ah compliant Lead Arrangers in the UAE and ranked third on the list of leading Islamic finance Book Runners in the country in its first year of operation.

Hussain Al Qemzi is the CEO of Noor Islamic Bank.

IFIS published a report on 24 January discussed on Albawaba that Sukuk or Islamic bond markets have witnessed a dramatic decline during 2008, especially during the 4th Quarter, which was the lowest since 2002, and 2008 was a worse year for sukuk than both 2006 and 2007 with no issuances even of a Dollar Sukuk and the total amount dropping to only USD 584 mn in Q4 2008. South East Asia was more severely impacted than the GCC in 2008, with issuance falling by 76% down to USD 6.57 bn for the entire year. The decline in the GCC was quite severe as well, however, with issuance falling to USD 9.06 bn, a 51% drop. The global total for sukuk issuance, USD 15.77 bn, was 66% lower than the figure for 2007. This is the first year on year drop in sukuk issuance since the year 2000.

Islamic syndicated lending expanded from USD 19.6 bn in 2007 to USD 27.2 bn in 2008, a 32% increase. But as with credit markets worldwide, Islamic syndicated lending froze almost completely in Q4 2008.

Tamweel PJSC, a Dubai-based real estate financer has closed a 3-year USD 235 mn syndicated bank facility.

ABN AMRO and Noor Islamic Bank served as lead arrangers and joint bookrunners for the transaction, which has been priced in both US dollars and UAE dirhams, and will reach maturity in three years.

Wasim Saifi is Chief Executive Officer of Tamweel.
Gaurav Agarwal is Chief Financial and Support Services Officer, Tamweel.
Hussain Al Qemzi is Chief Executive Officer of Noor Islamic Bank.
Vishnu Deuskar is Head of Global Markets ABN AMRO UAE.

Source: http://www.albawaba.com/en/countries/UAE/226249

Babu Das Augustine reported in Gulf News on 26 March that Noor Investment Group, the parent company of Noor Islamic bank, announced a 50:50 joint venture with Adventity BPO India Pvt Ltd. Adventity is an Indian business process outsourcing firm. Both parties aim to set up a business process outsourcing (BPO) facility in Dubai Outsource Zone with a seed capital of Dh50 million targeting Middle East and North Africa region focussing on the financial services outsourcing business.
 
While Noor Islamic Bank and other new ventures from the Noor Investment Group will utilise the BPO services from the new joint venture entity, Adventity already has signed up more than 12 clients in the region.
 
http://archive.gulfnews.com/business/Technology/10200278.html