IslamicFinance.de

The Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), a development finance institution of the Saudi Arabia-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB), and Dragon Capital Partners, the venture capital and private equity arm of Ukraine-based Dragon Capital Group, recently announced the intention to develop the Silk-way Growth Fund, a Sharia-compliant investment fund benefitting “high growth” small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) involved in manufacturing in Kazakhstan. The fund is slated to address the “financing gap created due to difficulty of accessing capital at sustainable market rates and the banking sub-sector’s lack of confidence in SME entrepreneurs.” According to ICD, SMEs make up 96 percent of all businesses in Kazakhstan and 25 percent of the country’s GDP.
ICD will act as fund advisor to Silk-way as part of its SME Platform, an initiative aimed at building Sharia-compliant investment management capacities in ICD’s 52 member countries, and it will consider investing capital in the fund as plans for the fund are finalized.

BAJ’s financial strength rating has been affirmed at “BBB” with a stable outlook. The bank’s long-term foreign currency rating has been affirmed at “BBB+” and its short-term foreign currency rating at “A2.” The ratings agency Capital Intelligence noted BAJ’s sound liquidity, strong customer deposit growth and improved profitability and highlighted the benefits of a reviving equity market to BAJ’s business. Nabil Al-Hoshan, CEO and MD of the Bank, was pleased that the banks strong underlying fundamentals had been recognized with this affirmation.