Tamweel wins Euromoney ‘Islamic Finance Deal of the Year’

Tamweel PJSC, the largest provider of real estate finance in the UAE, has won the award for “Islamic Finance Deal of the Year” at the prestigious Euromoney 2008 Islamic Finance Awards. At a ceremony held recently in London, Tamweel was recognised for its US$210 million asset-backed securitization issue, the world’s first Sharia-compliant residential mortgage backed securitization (RMBS) transaction.

These Class A bonds received ratings of Aa2 by Moody’s Investors Service and AA by Fitch Ratings Limited, placing them among the highest international ratings achieved to date in the Middle East and North Africa region. Despite volatile market conditions, the bonds were priced successfully, placing primarily with European investors.
The award from Euromoney, one of the world’s most prestigious financial titles, follows the top prize won by Tamweel for “Best Islamic Home Finance Product” at the recent Banker Middle East Awards. Together, these two awards demonstrate the company’s leadership across the institutional and retail investment segments.

Receiving the award on behalf of Tamweel, Wasim Saifi, the company’s newly appointed Chief Executive Officer, said: “We are extremely honoured to have been recognised for our pioneering RMBS transaction, the first internationally rated residential asset-backed securitization issued from the Middle East. Competing against the world’s leading financial services organisations, Tamweel has once again proved that it is a global leader in structuring innovative financial solutions. We are very grateful to Euromoney for recognising this signal achievement, which provides the company with attractively priced growth capital to fund our organic expansion.”

For this landmark securitization, Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc was appointed joint manager and joint bookrunner for the issue and provider of hedging solutions. Standard Chartered Bank served as joint manager and joint bookrunner for the issue and provider of liquidity facilities.

In line with its vision of becoming the region’s most admired financial services firm, Tamweel focuses on product innovation, service excellence, financial performance and geographic expansion. Recently, the company announced record profits of AED 451 million for 2007, the third consecutive year that it has registered triple-digit growth.

This growth in profitability comes at a time of regional expansion for Tamweel, which recently received a mortgage finance license from Egypt’s Mortgage Finance Authority to launch operations in the Arab world’s most populous nation. The company also expects to open a subsidiary later this year in Saudi Arabia. By 2011, Tamweel anticipates international operations contributing 20-30 per cent of total revenues.

About Tamweel PJSC:

Tamweel PJSC, the highest-rated non-banking financial institution in the region (rated A by Fitch and A3 by Moody’s) is the largest provider of real estate finance in the UAE by market share and asset size. Tamweel was established in March 2004, became a public joint stock company in June 2006 and was listed on the Dubai Financial Market in July 2006.

Tamweel is a provider of a wide range of unparalleled customer-service solutions and innovative home finance products, working with 300 partners across the UAE.

The company, which aims to become the regional home finance leader through its expansion plans into Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other countries in the MENA region, has branches in Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, as well as in Saudi Arabia and Egypt.