Lender Al Baraka Eyes 75% Stake in Indonesian Bank

Al Baraka Banking Group BSC, a Bahraini Islamic lender, is seeking to buy about 75 percent of an Indonesian bank before the end of this year, Chief Executive Officer Adnan Yousif said.

Al Baraka is in talks with the Chinese shareholders of the non-Shariah compliant bank and expects to invest as much as $100 million in the deal, Manama-based Yousif said in a phone interview today. He declined to provide the bank’s name.

“We would like to do it before the end of the year,” he said. Al Baraka will “inject new capital and turn it into an Islamic bank.”

Al Baraka has 400 branches in countries such as Egypt, Turkey, Syria and Tunisia. It plans to raise the branches this year by 50, including 20 in Turkey, Yousif said. The bank’s 2011 profit increased 12 percent to $118 million.

Al Baraka shares, traded on Bahrain’s stock exchange, fell 2.8 percent this year compared with a 4.3 percent gain for the benchmark stock index.

Bloomberg