IslamicFinance.de

Gatehouse Bank delivered successfully a real estate realized investment in the sale of VA Oceanside Clinic for $54.5 million. The medical facility is placed near San Deigo, California, USA.
The statement was given by Fahed Boodai, Chairman of Gatehouse Bank. The chairman added that the property is a specialized medical clinic leased to and operated by the US Department of Veteran Affairs for a period of 20 years, and has been generating an annual return of 7% that is distributed to shareholders on a monthly basis.

Richard Thomas, CEO of Gatehouse Bank, was awarded the OBE (Order of the British Empire) in the recent Birthday Honours list of Queen Elizabeth II on behalf of the UK Government. Thomas becomes the first UK royal award for civic excellence in Islamic finance.
Fahed Boodai, Kuwaiti chairman of Gatehouse Bank, stated that this recognition is honoring his leading contribution to the development of Shariah-compliant financing over the past 30 years.

Richard Thomas, Chief Executive Officer of Gatehouse Bank, is going to be recruited in the Order of the British Empire, an honour bestowed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. A special ceremony will be held in order to introduce Thomas as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).
The OBE will be handed in recognition for civic excellence and the contribution that Thomas has made to the UK Islamic financial services industry.

Gatehouse Bank plans to bring a $96.77 million Islamic bond to market by the end of the first quarter.
Richard Thomas, speaking on the sidelines of an Islamic forum in Abu Dhabi, said the bank would also arrange a 25-million pound ($40 million) syndicated lease financing this year.

Gatehouse Bank, London-based Shariah-compliant wholesale bank, is planning to launch a £70 million (Dh410m) Islamic bond (sukuk) next month.
In an exclusive interview with Emirates 24|7, Fahed Boodai said the sukuk is targeted at the UK corporates and is expected to be completed in November.
Simon Eedle added that the time is also right for sukuk issuances outside of the Gulf region and he expects more investment money from the West to tap the Islamic finance market in 2011.

This latest transaction completed in collaboration with GSH Kuwait, follows the acquisition of two earlier student accommodation properties in Loughborough and Liverpool last April, and brings the total value of Gatehouse Bank’s real estate portfolio in excess of £150 million.
The property has been purchased at a net initial yield of 6.73%, and will deliver an average cash yield of 9.3% per annum, with the university guaranteeing the term time rent and the developer, Berkeley Homes plc guaranteeing the summer vacation rent for the first five years.
The property, developed by Berkeley Homes, is subject to a Nominations Agreement with the Oxford Brookes University. The UK’s largest operator of privately managed student accommodation, CRM, will provide day to day management.

Gatehouse Bank, has bought two student accommodation properties for £29.2m.

Gatehouse Bank launches with Sustainable Assets Management (SAM) an Islamic compliant mutual fund focussing on sustainability-oriented companies that offer technologies, products and services throughout the entire value chain of the water industry.

Cecilia Valente reported on 25 February that UK Islamic bank Gatehouse, a unit of Kuwait's Securities House, is set to close its first real estate deal in the coming months, refinancing a continental European property worth about 100 million euros ($128.5 million). The CEO David Testa is cited to have said the bank expected to seal the deal by the end of the second quarter, declining to identify precisely the property or its location. He defines the range of business the four wholesale Islamic banks in the UK could do at deals between GBP 20-40 mn.

Gatehouse, the latest UK-based Islamic bank to be approved by UK market regulator the Financial Services Authority (FSA), will finance the deal through a lease and buy-back bond issuance, known as Ijara sukuk.

The sukuk will be placed in the market through the Channel Island-listed Milestone Capital Platform, which the bank said has the capacity to issue debt to up to $1 billion.

Testa said Gatehouse was also involved in raising $50 million for a commodity deal with a Latin American company, which he declined to name.

Gatehouse Bank plc has announced the establishment of a USD 1 bn Sukuk programme by Milestone Capital PCC ("Milestone"). Gatehouse Bank is the Arranger and Dealer of the Milestone programme as published in a press release via Zawya on 27 January.

The first Sukuk issue under the Milestone platform was successfully completed recently. The Milestone programme is listed on the Channel Islands Stock Exchange and certificates issued under the programme are entered into the Euroclear and Clearstream clearing systems, with BNP Paribas Securities Services acting as common depositary. Milestone Capital PCC is a Jersey based orphan Protected Cell Company, designed to allow the efficient creation of new, segregated, bankruptcy remote cells. Each cell has the ability to issue a diverse range of Sukuk certificates, which is proving very appealing for issuers and investors alike.

David Testa is the CEO of Gatehouse. Ashurst LLP is the legal advisor to Gatehouse Bank on the transaction.

Gatehouse Bank released that Philip Churchill has been appointed as Head of Real Estate. Philip Churh has been previously Head of Investment Management, Europe for four years with HDG Mansur, fund manager of the HSBC Amanah Global Properties Income Fund.

Gatehouse Bank, a subsidiary of the Kuwait-based investment firm The Securities House KSCC, has been approved as an investment bank by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and can now offer Shariah-compliant products.

David Testa is chief executive at Gatehouse.

Source: http://www.ukinvest.gov.uk/OurWorld/4029877/en-GB.html