IslamicFinance.de

The CEO of Kuwait Finance House (KFH), the Gulf country’s largest Islamic lender, has reportedly stepped down, according to two company sources. Mohammed al-Omar’s resignation as CEO is linked to wider management changes at KFH, one of the sources said.

According to Kuwait Finance House (KFH) CEO Mohammed Al-Omar, the continuous increase in profit over five consecutive quarters underlines the success of the restructuring process and the management's decision to focus on main operations to achieve sustainable profit, offer better returns to shareholders and depositors, and easing burden off the institution. He explained that that a rearrangement of the real estate portfolio is occuring, to benefit from current developments in the real estate market, in terms of rates and shifting to certain kinds of real estate and land. Furthermore, Al-Omar noted that the strategy that KFH adopted regarding its overseas banks, has played a role in cementing their roles and making them more profitable.

Kuwait Finance House has issued $1.5 bln sukuk for Turkey in cooperation with Citigroup and HSBC. It is the first issuance of this kind for the Government of Turkey. The expectations of the financing are high due to high amount of potential investors (altogether 250) that have been attracted by newly-issued sukuk. This fact confirms not only the great confidence of investors to Turkish economy, but also the confidence of global markets in sukuk products.

See more under: http://www.zawya.com/story/KFH_issues_15b_sukuk_for_Turkey-ZAWYA20120930...

According to the chairman of Kuwait Finance House in Turkey, Mr. Mohammed Al-Omar, the bank plans to go on with its pivotal role in the Turkish market, in addition to binding its strategy that is based on strengthening economic relations with neighboring countries, and with Kuwait and other GCC countries.
He added that the bank also wants to further offer Islamic products and instruments that can enlarge the horizon of Islamic banking in the Turkish economy, such as sukuk, murabaha, and ijarah. He underlined the fact that the bank presented products that never existed before in the Turkish market, such as the gold account and sukuk.

Kuveyt Türk Chairman Mohammed Al-Omar, Vice Chairman Abdullah Tivnikli and CEO Ufuk Uyan was present at at the signing ceremony and press conference for the second "Sukuk" issuance that accepted great interest from the Gulf Region and European investors.
Other officials from lead arranging banks also attended: Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Commerzbank, HSBC, Liquidity Management House and Standard Chartered Bank.

Kuwait Finance House's (KFH) Turkish unit will launch a 500 million US dollar Islamic bond by the end of the year.
Mohammed Al-Omar said the Islamic lender will issue the benchmark Sukuk following the success of Turkey's first Islamic bond offering, from lender Kuveyt Turk in August.
Al-Omar noted that the law is a significant step forward that reveals a great desire by many Turkish companies that have good assets but lack the suitable financing to expand locally and overseas to benefit from this new financing instrument; especially after those companies realized the numerous benefits of Sukuk, which include providing financing through Sukuk while neither hindering projects nor exhausting their budgets.

Kuwait Finance House (KFH) CEO Mohammed Al-Omar stated that that the Fatwa and Shariah Supervisory Authority has embodied the moral and social responsibility towards the society as a unit that operates in harmony to protect the client by ensuring that all banking transactions are Shariah compliant. The authority has played a pivotal role in developing numerous products that caused a paradigm shift in the in the history of Islamic banking. He appealed to governments to resort to Sukuk, since Sukuk have greatly succeeded in financing many projects, which made Sukuk highly demanded by worldwide.
Al-Omar added in a paper that he presented during the Islamic Financial Institutions Forum in Beirut, that Sukuk are considered to be the Shariah compliant alternative for bonds, were not granted an opportunity to highlight its role as a suitable financing tool, despite the advantages that Sukuk have, such as creating assets that have a specific value, which makes the financing process based on real tangible assets, in addition to the fact that it does not burden governments and companies.