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Gulf Finance House (GFH), a leading Middle Eastern Islamic investment bank, today announced that it intends to establish a joint Islamic financial services platform in the Middle East with Macquarie Group Limited (Macquarie), a global provider of banking, financial, advisory, investment and funds management services. The platform will offer a broad range of wholesale Shariah compliant financial services solutions to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
The proposed partnership, which is subject to board, internal, and regulatory approvals of both companies, includes a joint presence based in the region and approximately USD100m convertible murabaha investment by Macquarie in GFH as part of GFH’s current capital management initiatives.
The proposed partnership is the subject of a confidential memorandum of understanding signed by the parties in a private ceremony in Bahrain today.
Commenting on today’s announcement, GFH CEO Ahmed Fahour said, ‘The strategic partnership with Macquarie represents an exciting opportunity as we look to continue the bank’s diversification into new geographies and opportunities.’
‘Today’s announcement is an exciting step towards realizing GFH’s long term objective of establishing a truly world class Islamic investment bank. The strategic relationship would bring together GFH and Macquarie to create the standard in Sharia compliant products and services for the MENA region.’
