Jawad I. Ali is a London- and Dubai-based partner at King & Spalding, a law firm specializing in helping corporations structure deals in compliance with sharia, or Islamic law. Ali says sharia-compliant financial services are rapidly expanding in popularity, due in part to increased oil wealth across Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. He also credits increased efficiency in meeting the Islamic restriction on paying or charging interest, which has allowed banks to offer sharia-compliant services without sacrificing their competitiveness.

Gulf Finance House (GFH) yesterday announced that its USD 1 billion medium term sharia'a compliant Sukuk issuance programme (EMTN) has been assigned an investment grade credit rating (BBB-) preliminary rating by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services.

The rating is in line with GFH's corporate rating given by Standard and Poor's, and was one of the first given to an Islamic Investment Bank in the world.

Bahrain's Gulf Finance House (GFH) said yesterday it had priced a $276.5 million initial public offering in London at $2.5 per share and $25 per global depositary receipt.

The Islamic finance firm said in a statement 100 million shares had been allocated to the international offering with another 10.6 million existing ordinary shares potentially available through an over-allotment option.

The total 110.6 million shares represents 15.3 per cent of the company's outstanding equity capital, it said.

International legal practice Norton Rose has acted for Kuwait Finance House ( Bahrain ) B.S.C.(c) as mandated lead arranger on the issue of US$200 million trust certificates by Diyaar Sukuk Company. Diyaar Sukuk Company is a Cayman incorporated special purpose vehicle. The Originator is Diyaar Al Muharraq W.L.L., a Bahraini incorporated company. The trust certificates are due 2011.

Gulf bankers arranging Islamic bond sales have had to cancel or postpone holidays to cope with a deluge of deals during the summer, traditionally a quiet time for business in a region winding down to cope with the heat.

Sales of Islamic bonds, or sukuk, have surged in the last year as more of the world's 1.2 billion Muslims seek investment vehicles that comply with their beliefs.

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank and Emirates International Investment Company (EIIC) offered 310 million Egyptian pounds ($54 million) on Tuesday for full control of Egypt's National Bank for Development.

They said in a published announcement that their offer -- 11 pounds a share for all of the bank's 28.192 million shares -- would be valid for 20 working days starting on Wednesday.

The takeover will go through as long as they receive offers which amount to 51.2995 percent of the bank's equity, they said.

Path Solutions, the industry leading provider of software solutions, announced the signing of a partnership agreement with a top tier Syrian bank, Syria International Islamic Bank.

Headquartered in Damascus, SIIB is one of the first Islamic banks in Syria. With the help of this technology initiative, the bank hopes to become one of the region's leading banks to offer sophisticated Sharia-compliant services.

On this occasion, Abdel Qader Dweik, SIIB General Manager, said: