FINANCE - KFH investments in Turkey soard to more than USD 9 billion

The value of investment made by the Kuwait Finance House, or KFH, group in Turkey has soared to more than $9 billion.

FINANCE - Kuwait Alafco (Kuwait Finance House)To Expand Leased Aircraft Fleet In Turkey-Report

BEIRUT (Zawya Dow Jones)--Kuwait's Alafco Aviation Lease and Finance Co., a unit of Kuwait Finance House, is seeking to expand its leased fleet in Turkey, which currently consists of 11 aircraft leased for a total of $360 million, Kuwait-based Al Watan daily reports Wednesday citing a company executive.

Alafco Aviation Lease and Finance Company seeks to expand its business in Turkey because the country serves as a bridge linking Asia to Europe and because it received 26 million tourists in 2010 as well as 5 million Turkish expatriates, Ahmad Al Zabin, the company's chairman and managing director, said according to the paper.

FINANCE - Iskan Real Estate Receives ISO 9001:2008 Certification

Mr. Fawaz Al-Issa.

Company commits to ongoing improvements in Real Estate performance
 Kuwait; October 24, 2010 - Iskan Real Estate, Turkapital's real estate arm in Turkey, announced that it has achieved ISO 9001:2008 certification after meeting the guidelines set out by the International Organization for Standardization.

Iskan Real Estate was evaluated on its commitment to sustained quality management and improvement of its operations.

INSURANCE - TAKAFUL - Insurance company aims at conservatives in Turkey

Neova Insurance, a joint venture by five companies, aims at atracting customers who are cool towards insurance because of the their religious concerns, said the chief executive officer Tuesday at a press meeting in Istanbul.

Neova Insurance succeeded to realize premium generation of 44 million Turkish Liras by the end of September.

Özgür B. Koç, the CEO of the company said Neova aims to reach people living in Anatolian cities through different applications developed with concept of “Insurance of the Future.”

FINANCE - Kuwait Finance House's local real estate portfolio 2 offers 6% annual return (and KFH Turkey Real Estate Fund)

The Private Financial Services Department Manager at Kuwait Finance House (KFH) Talal Al-Nesf announced that KFH's local real estate portfolio 2 achieved high returns that resulted in the distribution of 6 % annual profit.

SUKUK - Kuveyt Turk - Turkey joins the Islamic bond revival

Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, was famously no fan of his country’s Muslim roots and culture, and once reportedly wished “all religions at the bottom of the sea”. One wonders what he would have made of news that a Turkish bank that adheres to sharia, which prohibits interest, is about to sell the country’s first Islamic bond, known as sukuk.

A smattering of Islamic banks - known as “participation banks” in Turkey to assuage secularists - have popped up in recent years, many of them owned by large Gulf-based Islamic financial institutions. But they remain miniscule in size compared to their conventional counterparts.