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Ahmed Fahour new Gulf Finance House chief
Published 7:35 AM, 20 Jul 2009 Last update 7:44 AM, 20 Jul 2009
By a staff reporter with AAP
Former National Australia Bank Ltd (NAB) executive director Ahmed Fahour has been appointed as the new chief executive of Middle Eastern Islamic investment bank Gulf Finance House (GFH).
Five months after leaving NAB to become interim chief executive of the federal government's Australian Business Investment Partnership (ABIP), Mr Fahour will now move to Bahrain to spearhead GFH's global expansion, the bank said in a statement.Mr Fahour will be responsible for increasing the bank's exposure to international markets and expanding the Islamic banking system.
GFH chairman Dr Esam Janahi said the Lebanese-born Australian would be ideally suited to expanding the company's global expansion.
"As a Muslim he has an inherent appreciation of the Islamic values that underpin our work and the philosophy woven into all GFH's key initiatives," he said.
GFH has a reputation for breaking the mould in originating excellent high value investment opportunities, Mr Fahour said.
GFH observes Sharia law in its banking practice, and has a market capitalisation of $US709.2 million ($A886.9 million).
It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and the bourses in Kuwait, Bahrain and Dubai.
Mr Fahour left NAB seven months after missing out on the bank's top job to Cameron Clyne last year.
He is believed to have received five offers during 2008 for top executive roles at offshore and local institutions.
As he left NAB, he accepted an offer the same day to become chief executive of ABIP, the government-backed entity that was to provide as much as $70 billion of refinancing to major commercial property projects which risked collapse as foreign and local lenders withdrew support for the sector.
Dubbed RuddBank, ABIP was to be a banking partnership between the federal government and the big four banks.
But in June the Senate voted to reject the enabling legislation for ABIP, with the Greens voicing concerns over executive remuneration.
Mr Fahour, who joined NAB from Citigroup in September 2004 as chief executive of the bank's Australian and Asia operations, changed roles within the bank last December when he became a group-wide strategic troubleshooter.
Under Mr Fahour's leadership, the Australian region delivered cash earnings growth of 15.8 per cent for fiscal 2008 and underlying profit growth of 19.3 per cent.
NAB reported a 0.9 per cent fall in reported net profit to $4.536 billion for fiscal 2008, but a 10.7 per cent plunge in cash earnings to $3.9 billion in line with consensus forecasts.
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