Leading international management consultancies have traditionally topped this category, with past winners including Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers. This year, although KPMG was an impressive challenger, Euromoney recognizes the work of local specialist Dar Al Istithmar.
The Islamic finance consultancy is a London-headquartered joint venture between Deutsche Bank, Russell Wood and Oxford Islamic Finance operating independently of its parent companies. Innovation is its watchword, via cutting-edge academic and market research, and the firm boasts a shariah supervisory committee of some of the most distinguished names in the industry.
The firm has had an international impact, with almost all of the products and services that it has developed in conjunction with its clients moving beyond established markets. For example, Deutsche Bank’s HFRX global hedge fund certificates are on offer to investors across the globe, and are attracting both Islamic and conventional investors, while its Islamic CROCI (cash return on capital invested) certificates are based on global as well as European, US and Japanese indices, and are therefore on offer to investors with regional and international interests. They are listed on the Frankfurt and Luxembourg exchanges and were scheduled to go on the DIFX at the end November 2005.