“People are looking for Islamic banks, which are outperforming conventional ones.”

“People are looking for Islamic banks, which are outperforming conventional ones.”

Alinma Bank, which in April raised $2.8 billion in Saudi Arabia’s biggest initial share sale for five years, jumped as much as 80 percent as it began trading in Riyadh Tuesday.

The state-backed Islamic bank, which sold shares at 10 riyals ($2.67) each and has yet to open for business, was trading at 14.75 riyals at 10:53 a.m. after climbing to as much as 18 riyals, Bloomberg reported.

Alinma, founded by three Saudi government funds in 2006 to become an Islamic retail and corporate bank, on April 20 said it got offers worth 18.27 billion riyals for 1.05 billion shares it offered the Saudi public. With help from Samba Financial Group it sold shares to raise 10.5 billion riyals.

“The shares should do well as the I.P.O. did,'’ Faisal Hasan, of Global Investment House KSCC, told Bloomberg before the shares started trading. “People are looking for Islamic banks, which are outperforming conventional ones.”

Go to Article from Bloomberg News »

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=azH8ENkEpm9U&dlbk