20 n 25 May 2008 n TheBusinessWeekly
banking & finance
Project
finance in
spotlight
TBW Bureau
Project finance deals are experi-
encing unprecedented growth with
about $1 trillion worth of projects
that are underway or in the pipe-
line in the Middle East which is
emerging as a strategic global hub
in this field.
Spurring developments in oil
& gas, petrochemicals, infrastruc-
ture, utilities and real estate are
substantial enough to place the
region second only to China as a
focus for project finance over the
next years. To take an overview
of these developments and the fu-
ture potential, Fleming Gulf will
be holding its 4th Annual Middle
East Project Finance Conference
2008 between May 26 and 28.
Zenab Husain, senior con-
ference producer with Fleming
Gulf, said, “The conference will
convene more than 170 senior
executives representing the inter-
national banking, finance, invest-
ment sectors discussing the latest
mechanisms for financing complex
transactions and outlook for the
next wave of mega-deals.”
eGovernment, NIB partner for online learning
125 courses
offer flexibility
to employees
By Jim Paolo Joquico
Dubai eGovernment, a pioneer-
ing initiative in the region to pro-
vide online services supporting
corporate and community life in
the emirate, has signed a Memo-
randum of Understanding (MoU)
with Noor Islamic Bank (NIB),
to provide e-learning solutions to
employees of NIB.
Under the terms of the agree-
ment, Dubai eGovernment will
provide 125 courses to 10 employ-
ees of NIB’s contact centre, ini-
tially. “By 2008 end, we’re look-
ing to increase that number up to
30,” Abdul Rahman Fekri, head of
human resources, NIB, told The
Business Weekly. He added that
training will be accessible to em-
Shuaa net profit up 53pc
All business lines said
to have fared well
TBW Bureau
Shuaa Capital, the region’s lead-
ing financial services institution,
has announced record results for
the financial year ended March
31, 2008. The outcome for the year
with record results was driven by
all business lines performing well
in upbeat markets.
The board of directors of Shuaa
Capital has proposed a cash divi-
dend of 45 per cent of the nominal
value of shares (Dh0.45 per share)
which is subject to approval at the
upcoming annual general meet-
ing.
Year-end operating income in-
creased by 83.3 per cent to Dh710.8
million (2006/07: Dh387.7 mil-
lion), an increase of Dh323.0 mil-
lion and net profit rose by 53 per
cent to Dh400.5 million (2006/07:
Dh261.8 million), an increase of
Dh138.7 million year-on-year.
Majid Saif Al Ghurair, chair-
man of Shuaa Capital, said, “Our
year-end results clearly demon-
strate that we are delivering on
our promise to shareholders. More
ployees across all career levels in
bank. Some of the courses offered
are telephone skills, effective
communication, listening skills,
handling difficult calls and under-
standing cultural differences.
Flexible offering
NIB’s action of choosing Dubai
eGovernment as their training
partner is justified by the latter’s
offering of flexibility. “There are
plenty of training providers in the
market today. However, the flex-
ibility in providing such training
to staff is the biggest obstacle that
we are facing today. The flexibil-
ity of the system offered by Dubai
eGovernment, that you can take
your lessons during your personal
time or your off-day, is what we
are after. That is the most vital
reason we opted for this,” Fekri
said.
In addition to flexibility, Shar-
if Bajo, NIB’s senior manager for
importantly, we have achieved
both scale and momentum across
our regional business. We are es-
pecially proud that in IPOs our in-
vestment banking division ranked
No 1 in the UAE, No 2 in the GCC,
and No 18 globally during fiscal
2007.”
Lead positions
Iyad Duwaji, chief executive
officer of Shuaa Capital, com-
mented, “The excellent outcome
this year was driven by marked
progress over all the markets and
client segments we serve. Each of
our six business divisions main-
tains leadership positions in their
field and we have built a greater
presence across the region. We
have further strengthened our fi-
nancial resources during the year
with the issuance of $456 million
of convertible bonds, and are ex-
tremely well placed to further
capitalise on the tremendous op-
portunities that GCC markets of-
fer. We are increasingly attracting
the attention of both regional and
global institutional investors.”
“Shuaa’s results were driven
by a solid performance during all
four quarters. During the first
quarter, Shuaa produced operat-
learning and development, men-
tioned ease of tracking their em-
ployees’ progress.
“It’s very easy for the manage-
ment to monitor how the employee
is doing, whether he’s achieving
the expected results. We know
whether the employee is passing
Abdul Rahman Fekri and Moza Al Akraf of Dubai eGovernment
ing income of Dh144.9 million and
net profit of Dh74.5 million. In the
second quarter, operating income
was Dh89.7 million and net profit
was Dh54 million. The third quar-
ter was exceptional and we gener-
ated operating income of Dh368.5
million and net profit of Dh213.0
million,” he said.
Mix of factors
The third quarter was driven
primarily by contributions of asset
management performance fees,
equity capital market activity, re-
cord brokerage trading volumes
as well as a divestment in the pri-
vate equity division and healthy
returns on the principal invest-
ments portfolio, seeing the highest
quarterly return in the company’s
near 30-year history.
The fourth quarter resulted
in operating income of Dh107.7
million and net profit of Dh58.9
million while markets were more
challenging. During the year, cli-
ent’s funds under management in-
creased 117.3 per cent to Dh14.23
billion helped by the strong in-
ternational investor appetite for
regional products and services,
primarily asset management, bro-
kerage and private equity.
the course or not,” he added.
“If you go to your conventional
training, you don’t really have a
very good way of monitoring it and
scaling it to how the individual is
doing in terms of performance or
understanding the courses,” Fekri
said.