Bank raises capital base to $496m

The Bank of London and The Middle East (BLME) has completed its scheduled private placement of £75 million ($149.1m).

This takes the London-based wholesale Sharia-compliant bank to a fully paid-up capital base of £250m ($496m).

The additional capital was provided by existing and new investors from a range of international jurisdictions.

The fund raising, which was oversubscribed, will provide BLME with a greater capacity to meet clients' financing requirements, enabling the bank to underwrite, syndicate and distribute a higher volume of business and further develop its strong balance sheet as the Islamic financial market continues to grow in the UK.

"At a challenging time for global financial markets, demand for Islamic finance in the UK remains robust to the extent that it has exceeded our initial growth projections over the past year," said BLME chief executive officer Humphrey Percy.

Since receiving its banking licence in July last year, BLME has established a dynamic deal pipeline, completing a variety of deals resulting in total assets of £297m at the end of last year.