Noor Islamic Bank leads $1.4B Islamic Finance mandates in Turkey

Noor Islamic Bank leads $1.4B Islamic Finance mandates in Turkey

Noor Islamic Bank (Noor) has been mandated to arrange and lead manage more than $1.4 billion Islamic finance capital market deals in Turkey in the last 18 months, making it the most active UAE bank in the republic.

October 23, 2011 2:28 by Precious de Leon

Noor released details of its financial dealings in Turkey on the eve of the Islamic Investment and Finance Forum, scheduled to take place in the Turkish capital Istanbul, from October 24-27. Noor is the Sukuk partner for the event.

One of the most striking features of the transactions arranged by Noor Islamic Bank has been that 56 percent of the participants were conventional institutions.

The latest of the shari’a compliant transactions is a $350-million dual currency Islamic structured Murabaha syndicated financing facility for Albaraka Türk one of Turkey’s leading Participation (Islamic) banks. Launched at $150 million, the Facility was more than 2 times oversubscribed to close at $350 million and has in fact become the largest Islamic structured syndicated financing facility raised by any Turkish financial institution.

Noor reportedly has an active pipeline of deals for the rest of this year and leading into 2012. It is in the final stages of closing more than three unique Shari’a compliant structured facilities

Hussain AlQemzi, CEO of Noor Islamic Bank said: “We have taken a leadership position in Turkey. We are the first UAE bank to successfully execute Islamic market mandates there with an aggregate value of $1.4 billion.”

“The Noor brand is growing internationally and we will continue to seek strategic opportunities beyond the UAE where we can leverage our undoubted expertise in the Shari’a compliant financial sector.”

During the four-day Islamic Investment and Finance Forum, leading regional and international Islamic finance experts will discuss a range of key topics for the Islamic finance industry including how to revive the global sukuk markets, following the financial crisis; kick starting sukuk markets in frontier economies; new business opportunities for Islamic syndicated finance and the future of Participation (Islamic) banking in Turkey.