Monday, June 29, 2009

Rasameel's Issam: In town for Islamic finance

The point person at Kuwait-based Rasameel Structured Finance is scheduled to be in Kuala Lumpur today. The company' vice chairman and CEO Issam Al-Tawari (picture) will be discussing the topic of distressed assets at the two-day 5th International Islamic Finance Forum Asia 2009.
Issam will be one of the panel members in a session discussing investment potentials in the distressed asset market and exploring the possibility for such assets to be managed in a Shariah-compliant manner. He will also be looking at the challenges and risk appetites faced when structuring Islamic funds for distressed assets.
Moderated by The Malaysian Reserve's associate editor Habhajan Singh, other panel members in the session are Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institution's (AAOIFI) assistant secretary general Khairul Nizam, Citi's head of regional Islamic structuring for fixed income Ahmad Shahriman Mohd Shariff and Thomson Reuters global head of Islamic finance Rushdi Siddiqui.
Headquartered in Kuwait, Rasameel's primary focus is providing its clients with a Shariah-compliant portfolio of predictable cashflow generating assets and securities in the form of asset securitisation invested in structured Islamic investment products.
Issam started his career with the Bahrain-based Arab Banking Corporation (ABC), working in the area of loans and syndication covering the European market and the GCC market at a later stage. He then worked extensively on corporate finance issues with ABC’s then newly incorporated subsidiary in 1994, ABC Islamic Bank, to become an associate director whose main responsibility was syndication and marketing.
He joined The International Investor (TII), Kuwait, in 1998 in the structured finance division working on project finance, asset-backed leases and a broad range of Islamic investment products. His last position with TII was chief operating officer and a partner with the structured finance group.
Issam has served on the board of directors of a number of companies and funds. He is also the chairman of Ain Takaful Insurance company, Kuwait, cofounder of Ritaj Investment Company, Kuwait, and ex-chairman of Binaa & Namaa (Sorooh) Investment, a company which specialises in financing build-operate-tranfer projects.

(This story appeared in The Malaysian Reserve on June 29, 2009. The Malaysian Reserve is a daily business/finance newspaper published out of Kuala Lumpur, with a sectoral page on Islamic finance on Mondays, edited by Habhajan Singh)

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