Singapore-based Emirates Tarian Capital will introduce a Sharia-compliant investment fund worth over $400 million targeting Asian properties across all sectors, its managing director said on Wednesday. "It will look at properties across the region. It will look mostly at commercial and residential and not so much at hospitality because of Sharia-compliance [requirements]," Kunalan Sivapuniam said in an interview at the Reuters Real Estate Summit in Singapore.

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.

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.

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.