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Razi Fakih, HSBC: providing services across geographies |
In a fast-growing industry such as Islamic finance it can at times be difficult to distinguish between the truly innovative financial services providers and the pretenders who claim to have launched groundbreaking products when they have done nothing of the sort. There’s little doubt, however, about the camp into which HSBC Amanah falls. No other institution can match its breadth and depth across products and geography. The bank has operations in 20 Muslim majority countries in the Middle East and Asia and has a range of products available in each: capital markets, loans, project finance, risk management, structured finance, advisory, private banking and asset management.
Last year the bank was involved in several landmark transactions. Highlights included its role as one of the lead managers (along with UBS and CIMB) on Malaysian investment company Khazanah’s $750 million, five-year sukuk, the first Shariah-compliant exchangeable bond; a $600 million financing that contributed to the development of a $9.9 billion Saudi petrochemicals complex in Rabigh, at the time the largest Islamic finance tranche in a project financing; and the mandated lead arranger role on the $850 million, five-year revolving murabaha facility for Kuwait Finance House, the largest Islamic financial institution deal.