Islamic bank co-finances GenSan water district

MANILA, Philippines - Al Amanah Islamic Investment Bank of the Philippines (Amanah Islamic Bank) is co-financing an P80-million term loan for the General Santos City Water District.

The Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) is the co-financier of the project that plans to provide potable and affordable water supply in the progressive city. DBP is the majority stakeholder of Amanah Islamic Bank.

No further details, however, were made available.

But Amanah Islamic Bank chairman and chief executive officer Enrique Bautista Jr. said in a statement that the co-financing effort was part of the bank's mandate to serve the banking needs of the country’s Muslim community.

Bautista added that the country’s first and only Islamic bank will complement DBP’s initiative for micro, small and medium entrepreneurs in Mindanao.

“We will provide alternative banking services in response to emerging global Islamic markets,” he said in the statement.

In line with its five-year plan, Amanah Islamic Bank is implementing an aggressive marketing strategy through its nine branches located in Cagayan de Oro, Cotabato, General Santos, Jolo, Zamboanga, Davao, Makati. Marawi, and Iligan.

Of the total, seven branches are actually being refurbished while the Marawi and Iligan branches are being renovated.

Amanah Islamic Bank offers conventional and Islamic deposits as well as conventional loans and Islamic financing. It will introduce project financing under murabaha (cost plus) and lijarah (leasing).

Part of the five-year plan, is placing 49-percent equity in the auction block for an investor with a bias for an Islamic financial institution. The sale would open up the bank to capital from the Middle East as well as the huge Muslim bankers in Southeast Asia. It would facilitate the entry of Islamic banking expertise and technology.

The bank, however, remained mum about interest expressed by officials of QAF Brunei Sdn Bhd Co. Ltd. on Amanah Islamic Bank.

In the recent trip of President Aquino in Brunei Darussalam, QAF Brunei was reportedly interested in the bank as “a vehicle in promoting the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines-East Asian Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) investment.”