In line with UAE policy to open up its economy to foreign investors, SALAMA Islamic Arab Insurance Company’s board of directors has resolved to recommend to the shareholders’ Extra-Ordinary General Assembly to open up shareholding to foreign nationals for up to 25% of the company’s issued shares.

“The Board’s resolution is in response to the UAE policy to implement WTO provisions”, said Sheikh Khaled bin Zayed bin Saqr Al Nahayan, SALAMA Chairman. He added, “SALAMA has a history of market leading initiatives. We had moved quickly to open up the company’s shareholding to GCC nationals. We were the first in the insurance sector to receive Ministry of Economy and Planning authorization to allow GCC nationals to own our shares and we expect this time around to be the first to receive authorization to allow foreign nationals to own up to 25% of our shares.”

SALAMA share is one of the actively traded shares on the Dubai Stock Exchange. At the end of the first quarter 2006, the company announced an interim profit of AED 70.6 million. The company’s assets by the end of March 2006 stood at AED 1.34 billion

SALAMA, the world’s largest Takaful and Re-Takaful firm, expects global demand for Takaful and Re-Takaful products and services to grow significantly over the next five years. Market value is forecast to increase from US$ 1.7 billion to US$ 7.5 billion and US$ 10 billion.

As part of its strategy for future growth, SALAMA has invested in developing its insurance products base in the UAE. At the same time SALAMA has raised its controlling shareholding in Takaful & Re-Takaful International Investment Co. (TARIIC) to 90.81% which, in turn, owns a controlling shareholding in a number of Takaful and Re-Takaful companies among which is BEST Re – the world’s largest Islamic re-insurance company. BEST Re is rated by Standard & Poor’s (S&P) BBB (Good) which means that the company has good financial security characteristics. BEST Re has increase its capital from US$ 55 million to US$ 100 and this increase is expected to help the company improve its S& P rating.

SALAMA was listed on the Dubai Financial Market following an IPO offering which helped raise the capital to AED 1 billion. SALAMA has subsidiaries offering Takaful products in Egypt , Lebanon , Tunisia , Algeria , Senegal and Malaysia . It also provides Re-Takaful services in 70 countries through Tunisia headquartered BEST RE, the world’s biggest Re-Takaful  company.