Bahrain Islamic Bank (BisB) said it expects to open five new financial malls over the next two years as paart of its new growth strategy.

Speaking on the sidelines of the AAOIFI conference, chief executive Mohammed Ebrahim Mohammed said the bank would be raising around BD54 million ($143.2 million) through a share sale on June 8 to help fund its further expansion.

"This is part of our two-year strategy which will also see us open another branch within three months.

"We bought the land for these financial malls two years ago and have now concluded a deal with the contractors.

"They should be up and running within two years with the first two probably ready by the beginning of next year," he added.

He said that like all banks they had been effected by the recent unrest but now things were picking up again.

"Everybody was impacted by the crisis, but we never closed any of our 13 branches and we are seeing strong business again particularly in our new branches in Bahrain City Centre and Bahrain Financial Harbour," Mohammed added.-TradeArabia News Service