“Safeena”

Asia Finance Bank and AmanahRaya Investment Bank have committed equity to a new USD 50 million shipping fund in Malaysia. During our visit in Malaysia, we caught up with Mr. Mohd Zamri Shariff, Head of Asset Management Division, Asian Finance Bank for an update on the first Sharia compliant shipping fund in the Asian region – the Safeena Islamic Shipping Fund (“Safeena shipping fund”). Safeena shipping fund which literally means “my ship” in Arabic was launched on 28 April 2008, with a committed equity participation from its two sponsors, Asian Finance Bank (“AFB”) and AmanahRaya Investment Bank (“ARIB”) amounting to USD 50 million.

Owned by a consortium of shareholders from leading Middle Eastern financial institutions – Qatar Islamic Bank and associates (70%), RUSD Investment Bank Inc of Saudi Arabia (20%) and Financial Assets Bahrain W.L.L (10%) – Asian Finance Bank is one of the three foreign Islamic banks that has been granted a license by Bank Negara Malaysia (Malaysia’s Central) to undertake Islamic banking business. In 2004, Malaysia awarded three licenses to Kuwait Finance House, Saudi Arabia’s Al Rajhi Bank and AFB, in an effort to develop into a region Islamic finance hub. The other sponsor of the shipping fund, AmanahRaya Investment Bank, is Malaysia’s leading Trustee Company, wholly owned by the government. Continue Reading

Malaysia: Challenges and Opportunities

Marine Money Asia hits the road this week as we head to Kuala Lumpur to present at the Maritime Financing Seminar 2009 put together by our friend Nazery Khalid at the Maritime Institute of Malaysia (“MIMA”) with the sponsor OCBC Bank. More than any other cities in the country, Kuala Lumpur represents the focal point of Malaysia in many aspects and the same can be said for ship financing. The two day seminar gathered an impressive list of over 80 delegates to discuss the current state and the opportunities for the growing Malaysian shipping industry. In his opening address, Director General Dato Cheah Kong Wai from MIMA highlighted some of Malaysia’s achievements in the maritime sector. Today, Malaysia is ranked by UNCTAD as the 18^th most important nation in terms of its 1.2% contribution to the world’s merchant fleet in 2008. In addition to two world class container ports – Port Klang and Pelabuhan Tanjung Pelepas, Malaysia’s national carrier MISC is the world’s largest owner-operator of LNG tankers with a fleet of 27 vessels. The nation is also the world’s 13^th largest producer of natural gas and 24^th largest in crude oil production which explains the vibrancy of its domestic oil and gas sector.        Continue Reading