Business | Banking
QNB joins Kuwaitis to set up Islamic firm
Qatar National Bank (QNB) said on Sunday it had agreed with Kuwaiti partners to set up an Islamic financial services firm to tap growing demand for Sharia-compliant financing in the Gulf region.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:32 March 10, 2008
Dubai: Qatar National Bank (QNB) said on Sunday it had agreed with Kuwaiti partners to set up an Islamic financial services firm to tap growing demand for Sharia-compliant financing in the Gulf region.
QNB by market value will own 30 per cent of Kuwaiti-Qatari Co for Leasing and Investment, which will provide Islamic financial services to Gulf countries, the lender said in a statement on the Doha bourse website, without giving details.
QNB did not name its Kuwaiti partners in the 24 million dinar ($88.46 million) firm, which will comply with Islam's ban on purchasing assets that pay interest or earn profits from industries related to alcohol, gambling or pork processing, among others.
QNB's Islamic banking operations -which contributed 148 million riyals to its profit last year - could climb by as much as 80 per cent in 2008, the bank's Chief Financial Officer Ramzi Talat Mari said.
Like other lenders in the world's biggest oil-exporting region, Qatar National has been expanding abroad as competition in its home market intensifies.
The lender said in September it had agreed with partners to set up a bank in Syria and revealed earlier this month that it took over the Qatar government's 50 per cent stake in Tunisian-Qatari Bank.
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