Nine-month net profits at Kuwait-based The International Investor (TII) were up 10 per cent at KD 3.6 million ($11.9 million), compared to the same period of 1998. 'Profits were boosted by strong performances in our treasury operations and other short-term investments,' says Adnan Abdulaziz al-Bahar, chairman and managing director.

The gain on sales of short-term investments of KD 2.1 million ($6.8 million) were almost five times those earned in the first nine months of last year. The improvements in profits came despite a KD 498,943 ($1.6 million) windfall in the same period of last year from the reversal of previous provisioning on a leasing transaction.

'It has been a good period for us,' saysAl-Bahar. 'We've got involved in some interesting deals.' Most noticeable was the appointment in late September of TII as financial adviser to Dallah Albaraka for the extensive restructuring of its Islamic banking subsidiaries (MEED 8:10:99). 'We expect the Dallah Albaraka work to have a small impact on our profits in full-year 1999, but it is really a two-year project and it will make a sizeable difference in 2000 and 2001,' says Al-Bahar.

TII's 35 per cent participation in the establishment of Al-Khaleej Islamic Bank in August, in conjunction with Bank of Bahrain & Kuwait, will also contribute to full-year profitability (MEED 20:8:99). 'Al-Khaleej is up and running and we expect it to produce a profit in its first year of operation,' saysAl-Bahar.

TII's active role in the provision of Islamic financing is to expand into Egypt with the bank preparing to arrange $300 million in a debt/equity deal for a petrochemicals plant (see Egypt). 'We have just signed an MoU [memorandum of understanding] with the clients, led by AMOC [Alexandria Mineral Oils Company],' says Al-Bahar. 'It is probably going to be a 50:50 debt/equity deal.'