Amidst tough market conditions, Qatar First Investment Bank (QFIB), Qatar’s independent Shari’ah compliant investment bank, strikes outstanding performance at this year’s Islamic Business & Finance Awards organized by CPI Financial. QFIB won the accolade of “Best Investment Bank in the GCC for 2011” amongst 11 regional players in this category.
Bringing together over 250 regional and global industry professionals from around the world, the prestigious annual Islamic Business & Finance Awards event was held at the Emirates Towers Hotel in Dubai. The gala ceremony celebrated achievement among top Islamic bankers, financiers and Islamic banking and finance institutions.
Commenting on the occasion Emad Mansour, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of QFIB said: “We are proud to receive such a prestigious award in spite of the fact that we are considered new players in the market, it is certainly not an easy task setting up a bank in such challenging global market conditions. This award comes as a testament to our long term vision, prudent investment strategy, sound corporate governance and our talented pool of employees.”
The panel of global judges included input from industry analysts, corporate executives and Islamic bankers’ experts to select the leading Islamic banking and finance players across the Arab region.
Since the start of its operations in 2009 and despite the precarious financial environment, QFIB has built itself a strong portfolio of investments across the region. Most recently, QFIB acquired a US$16 million stake in Kuwait Energy Company, a leading Middle Eastern independent oil and gas exploration and production company headquartered in Kuwait. In the financial sector, QFIB acquired a10.3% stake in Watania Takaful a newly established Islamic insurance company based in Abu Dhabi.
On Corporate Advisory side, QFIB was appointed as Co-Lead manager for the issuance of Sharjah Islamic Bank sukuk which was oversubscribed by 9 times.
In October 2011, QFIB was awarded the prestigious BFSI Deployment of the Year Award by Computer News ME’s (CNME) and was honoured for taking a major step in embracing cloud technologies for Core Banking, Email, and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).