Tamweel plans India, Morocco, Turkey expansion

Dubai-based Islamic mortgage lender Tamweel TAML.DU said it plans to enlarge into India, Morocco and Turkey, and expects to turn a profit from Egyptian and Saudi operations next year.
"In Egypt and Saudi Arabia, it is all approved and we are just setting up," CEO Adel al-Shirawi told journalists on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum annual meeting in the Davos resort. "We will begin to earn there in 2009."
To fund its fast expansion, Al Shirawi said the firm aimed to gain capital by all means possible, including debt, issuing sukuk or Islamic bonds, and through the listing of its local units.
"We will keep a majority stake," he said. "(We) will diversify risk through rationalizations but will remain focused on mortgages."
Tamweel recently sold $300 million in convertible Islamic bonds, or sukuk, which comply with Islam's ban on interest and offer investors a share of profits from underlying assets instead.
Larger rival Amlak Finance AMLK.DU delayed a sale of Islamic bonds planned for the fourth quarter because of the fallout from the credit crisis triggered by U.S. mortgage defaults
Al Shirawi, however, said the disorder in Western markets had benefited his business, as falling U.S. interest rates widened the gap between the price at which it borrows and lends to home owners, improving the earnings power of Tamweel's mortgage book.
Demand for mortgages is growing in the UAE, where Dubai triggered the Gulf Arab real estate boom in 2002 by allowing foreigners to invest in property.