NBK's Islamic leasing funds flourish in Kuwait

Kuwait's largest bank, the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK), could perhaps appropriately adopt the sobriquet as the world's leading Islamic leasing bank just as HSBC Amanah has aspirations of being the world's local Islamic bank.

In the space of a fortnight NBK has launched its latest tranches of leasing funds under its KD Ijara and Thahabi Ijara Fund brands. Such is the pent-up demand for these investment products that the entire subscription to NBK's Islamic KD Ijara Fund IV was fully subscribed on the first day of its offering period on June 13 with a fund size of 33 million dinars. The offering was supposed to close on July 29. The first in this series was launched in June 2009 and assets are invested in an unincorporated investment fund that invests in the Wafra Ijara KWD Fund IV.

The same investor appetite was repeated for NBK's Thahabi Ijara Fund VI, a premier NBK US dollar Islamic leasing investment vehicle, launched earlier in June 2010. Assets of this fund are invested in an unincorporated investment fund that invests in the Wafra Equipment Income Ijara Fund. The offer period officially closes on July 1.