The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) has granted an investment business licence (Islamic principles) to Al Khabeer International, a Saudi-based company set up with an initial paid-up capital of more than $100 million.

Al Khabeer International will address the needs of institutional and high net-worth clients who require Sharia-compliant private equity, asset management and capital market products and services.

In April 2008, the Capital Markets Authority of Saudi Arabia granted asset management and investment banking licences to Al Khabeer International's affiliated company, Al Khabeer Merchant Finance Corporation, which now employs over 80 staff.

It has so far arranged over $1.6 billion in Islamic debt and equity capital, and is currently involved in completing transactions totalling $2 billion.

"The CBB is delighted to welcome Al Khabeer to Bahrain. It is a tribute to the core strength of the Al Khabeer business model and a show of confidence in the Bahrain financial services sector that investors have contributed over $100m in paid-up capital at this time," said CBB Licensing and Policy director Ahmed Abdul Aziz Al Bassam.

"We are pleased to expand our services and establish a local presence in Bahrain, said Al Khabeer International executive director Ammar Ahmed Shata, who is also the founder of Al Khabeer Merchant Finance Corporation.

According to him, the combined capital of Al Khabeer now exceeds $216 million.

"The business in Bahrain has been equipped with a first-class team of experts capable of better serving our growing number of clients in the wider Middle East and North Africa region," he added.

"We are confident that we will perform excellently in an uncontested market space where we can focus on being the best in the industry and provide the total solutions that a growing number of clients seek," said Al Khabeer International chief executive officer Andrew Broadley.

"The expected consequence of our vision is the establishment of a business which is capable of enduring for the long-term, the nature of the business cycle notwithstanding.

"This sustained outcome will be consistent with the nature of the businesses of Al Khabeer International's founding shareholders who represent some of the most well-established and respectable companies and families in the Gulf," he said.-TradeArabia News Service