Established on 16 October 1999 in the Kingdom of Bahrain, Gulf Finance House (GFH) is one of the most respected Islamic investment banks in the Middle East region in its quality and innovation of product offering. At the cutting edge of the rapidly expanding international Islamic banking industry, the Bank is committed to the Islamic Sharia’a philosophy of wealth management which shapes the structure and direction of its investment products.
GFH’s core product offering, from which it generates the majority of its revenue and profit, is the conception, high level planning and arrangement of infrastructure developments of projects in the GCC region, the wider Middle East and North Africa (”MENA”) region and other emerging markets. GFH’s development infrastructure projects have been conceived to accelerate economic growth in partnership with the governments of the countries being invested in.
Zain was founded in 1983 and today is one of the largest mobile operators in the Middle East and Africa, with more than 9.5 million customers in Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and 13 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Zain is listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange.
In September 2002, Zain, then MTC, entered into a Partner Network Agreement with Vodafone, the world's leading mobile community in Kuwait creating MTC Vodafone Kuwait. In 2003 MTC continued its expansion with the acquisition of 96.4% of Fastlink in Jordan.
Zain’s aspirations did not slow down and in 2003 MTC-Vodafone Bahrain was launched with the first 3G/EDGE nation wide network in the world.
In 2004 the MTC Atheer service was launched in Southern Iraq, and today covers Baghdad as well.
2004 also witnessed the Government of Lebanon handing over the management of one of the two mobile networks (Mic2) to the Zain Group, which is known now as MTC touch.
Most recently in March of 2005 MTC acquired Celtel International, a Dutch communications network company with major interests in 13 Sub-Saharan African countries, in one of the biggest telecom deals in the Middle east and Africa worth $3.36 billion.
The Zain Group now operates in 18 countries. With this deal Zain group has completed its first phase of its 3X3X3 strategy which entails becoming a global operator with more than 15 million customers by 2011. Zain will continue to expand internationally through acquisitions, partnerships and green-field opportunities.
Albaraka Banking Group (ABG)(Baraka) was incorporated in Bahrain on 27 June 2002 and is 55% owned by Shaikh Saleh Abdullah Kamel and 45% by Dallah Albaraka Holding Company (E.C.), Bahrain. ABG operates under an offshore banking licence and is holder of its shareholders’ interests in ten geographically diverse subsidiaries incorporated in Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, South Africa, Sudan, Tunisia and Turkey.
The creation of Albaraka Banking Group arose from the need, identified through the wisdom of Shaikh Saleh Kamel, for a truly global Islamic banking service for Muslims worldwide. Through the consolidation under the banner of Albaraka Banking Group in Bahrain – arguably the foremost Islamic banking centre in the world today – of these already established and successful banks, an entity has been created that is fast establishing a name for itself in the Arab and Islamic banking world.
The joining of the ten constituent banks under a single holding company, ABG, has not only created a group whose financial strength is greater than the sum of its parts, but has ideally placed it to take advantage of this growth in the industry and to expand to meet the challenges of that growth. ABG sees its mandate as the creation of an Islamic banking conglomerate that will provide its customers worldwide with a growing array of products and services strictly in conformity with the principles of the Shari’a.
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The Chief Executive Officer of ABG is Adnan Ahmed Yousif, also a Member of the Board, a prolific international banker who has over 30 years’ of experience and is the recipient of the prestigious Islamic Banker of the Year Award for 2004.
Serving both the corporate and consumer markets in the most liberalised and competitive market in the Middle East, Batelco (BATELCO.BH) is committed to delivering cutting-edge telecommunications to its customers in Bahrain and MENA. Batelco is driven by an enthusiasm for delivering the best customer experience based on innovation, affordability and reliability of products and services.
With significant operations in Bahrain , Jordan, Kuwait and Egypt, the Batelco Group provides voice and data services over fixed, wireless, and internet platforms, systems integration and enterprise solutions to Government and Corporate clients.
Batelco’s specialised services cover the full spectrum of telecommunications solutions for residential and business customers and spans a comprehensive array of mobile services, international roaming, high speed Internet connections, WiFi, MPLS IP-VPN network provisioning and management, datacoms and other fixed line services. Batelco is currently migrating to an all IP network as part of its ‘Broadband Bahrain’ national project. This major investment reflects Batelco’s commitment for excellence which has reinforced Bahrain’s position as a leading communications hub. The Company’s shares are listed on the Bahrain Stock Exchange. Batelco had a total market capitalisation of approximately $ 3.3 billion at September 2006.
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