Denton Wilde Sapte is opening a Bahrain office in March to tap into the growing Islamic finance sector. The office will be the firm’s ninth in the Middle East, and will complete its coverage of all the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
The firm has also linked up with Bahraini firm Hassan Radhi & Associates, which will provide the capability to advise on local laws needed to attract and advise local clientele. The two firms worked together last August on the US$70m Islamic finance-structured loan to Gulf Air on its aircraft acquisitions.
Dubai-based Islamic finance partner Chris Aylward is taking the helm of the new office, with support from corporate partner Paul Davies. Partners across the firm’s Middle East practice will provide the critical mass needed to build up the office, the firm said. “We plan to start on a relatively small scale, with the rest of our regional network assisting where necessary,” said Middle East managing partner Neil Cuthbert (pictured).
The burgeoning market for Islamic finance work was the main driver for the office launch, prompted by an “encouraging” level of Bahrain-related transactions, said Cuthbert. “The office … presents exciting opportunities for our international finance practice, as Bahrain is a major financial centre and the hub of the Middle East Islamic finance industry,” said Denton chief executive Howard Morris.
Bahrain is stepping up efforts to position itself as the Middle East’s Islamic finance hub – according to the Governor of the Central Bank of Bahrain, the Kingdom has one of the largest number of Islamic banking entities in the world. More recently, financial services firm Deloitte announced that it will base its Islamic Finance Knowledge Centre in Bahrain.
Denton’s eight other Middle East offices are in Egypt, Kuwait, Jordan, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE (Dubai and Abu Dhabi).
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