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Egyptians have been paying tribute to Saudi businessman Saleh Kamel who died in Jeddah on Monday after suffering a heart attack. Members of the country’s business, political, religious, and entertainment communities joined in mourning the passing of the prominent figure. Kamel, who was the chairman and founder of the Dallah Al-Baraka Group established part of his economic empire in Egypt including Arab Radio and Television (ART), and Al-Baraka Bank. He also used the ART Institution to fund charity projects throughout Egypt. Kamel had always been a strong supporter of Egypt and in March 2015 headed a delegation of 100 businessmen and investors at a major conference in Sharm El-Sheikh aimed at boosting the Egyptian economy.

Saudi billionaire Saleh Kamel died on Monday and has been buried in Makkah, but his legacy is sure to endure. Even at the age of 79, despite suffering from age-related health issues, Kamel remained active and busy. After graduating, he worked at the Saudi Ministry of Finance. After 10 years with the ministry, Kamel moved to the private sector. He founded his flagship Dallah Al-Baraka Holding Company in 1969 in Riyadh. He expanded the Group's acitivity to include financial and banking services, health care, manufacturing, real estate, tourism, trading and more. Dallah Al-Baraka Group also has the honor of being chosen to clean and sterilize the Two Holy Mosques. Kamel was also a well-known investor in the media and satellite television production. He established Arab Radio and Television and formed a partnership with the Arab MBC channel. Dubbed "the father of contemporary Islamic finance", he received Malaysia’s Royal Award for Islamic Finance in November 2010. The tycoon’s wealth was estimated to be about $2.3 billion. Kamel aspired to creating jobs. He believed that all people should have dignity and that all lives are precious and deserve to be honored.

Some of Saudi Arabia's most powerful men were arrested in October as part of a fight against corruption. The government freezed the accounts of the more than three dozen men totalling $33 billion of net worth. The series of arrests has implicated the country's richest people, including Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, Bakr Binladin, Mohammed Al Amoudi, Saleh Kamel and Nasser Al Tayyar. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is No. 50 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index ranking of the world's 500 richest people, with $19 billion. Two of the four Saudis on the Bloomberg index haven't been detained, hotel magnate Mohamed bin Issa Al Jaber, who has an $8.3 billion fortune, and Prince Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Kabeer, the biggest individual shareholder in food processor Almarai Co., who has $4.7 billion.

Ashraf Ahmed Mustafa El-Ghamrawy, CEO of Al Baraka Bank Egypt said that the bank’s activity was not impacted by the detention of the Saudi businessman Saleh Kamel. Kamel is the chairman and founder of the Dallah al Baraka Group (DBHC) which owns Al Baraka Bank Egypt. The anti-corruption committee set up by Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz has recently detained a number of Saudi princes, ministers and businessmen for corruption charges. According to El-Ghamrawy, what happens with Kamel in Saudi Arabia will have no effect on the bank’s performance in Egypt. He also notified the Egyptian Stock Exchange that Kamel is not a member of the board of directors. Therefore, there is no impact on the bank.

THE Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank will be preoccupied with two developments in 2011 apart from its established plan of action. This is the progress toward the launch of its mega bank project and the other is the continuation of its trust certificate (sukuk) program.
The mega bank project was promoted by Saleh Kamel, head of Dallah Albaraka Group, who has been trying to get it launched for the last few years. But his failure to get the project started off through the support of both government and private investors saw the project somehow passed on to the IDB. The plan is to launch a mega bank that will effectively be an Islamic Interbank bank, with the aim of providing short-term liquidity to the global Islamic banking market and of promoting the trading of sukuk in the secondary market by acting as a market maker.
CIMB of Malaysia, Citigroup, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank acted as joint lead managers and joint book-runners, and NCB Capital of Saudi Arabia acted as co-lead manager for this transaction. The success of IDB's transaction was underpinned by a comprehensive international road show covering Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

The whole-sale "mega bank" initiated by Saleh Kamel, Chairman of Dallah Albaraka Group shall be situated in Bahrain and is going to fundraise this year reported Shakir Husain in Gulf News. The bank should be business even outside the Muslim regions.

The bank's founders will contribute USD 1 bn in equity and USD 10 bn will be raised by offering shares to the public. Another USD 200 bn is planned to come from sukuk issuance and investment funds.

Among the main shareholders will be the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), the Jeddah-based multilateral lending agency, Dallah Albaraka Group, Kuwaiti Real Estate Bank and another 10 banks. There are two possible names being considered for the bank, which are Al Imar and Al Istikhlaf.

Bahraini and GCC investors plan to establish an Islamic stock market in Bahrain. The stock market is part of the proposed Islamic mega bank project, which is said to have received licence from Central Bank of Bahrain.

Businessman Shaikh Saleh Kamel is quoted to have said that the bank aims for a capital of USD 11 bn, of which USD 1 bn are administrative shares for the bank's strategic investors, among them Al Baraka Group, a Kuwaiti bank, Saudi Investment Bank, Islamic development Bank and Bahrain Islamic Bank.

The mega bank is supposed to launch USD 33 bn worth of investment funds in regional and international markets.

Source:
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=212659&Sn=BUSI&IssueID=...