Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)– Kuwaiti investors have ruled out the possibility of offloading their shares in the Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd (IBBL) saying that it was the best investment for them.

“Our investment with the IBBL is one of our best global investments,” Mohammed Abdullah Al Jalahma, deputy secretary general of the Kuwait Awqaf Public Foundation, told a group of reporters at the IBBL headquarters in the capital Dhaka on Wednesday.

Mr Jalahma, arrived in Dhaka to attend at the annual general meeting (AGM) of the IBBL, said the news of selling IBBL’s shares by three Kuwaiti organisations were not true.

Three Kuwaiti Ministries – Kuwait Awqaf Public Information, Public Authority for Minors Affairs and Public Institution for Social Security -along with the Kuwait Finance House, are now holding around 18 percent shares of the IBBL.

Of which, Public Authority for Minors Affairs that owns less than one per cent shares of the Shariah-based bank has wanted to know about the procedurals for selling of their equity holdings, according to Jalahma.

“I may talk with our authorities about further investment in Bangladesh particularly the IBBL,” Jalahma said while replying to a query, adding that they were not facing any problems in Bangladesh.

Earlier on March 29, Mr Salauddin, representative of Kuwait Finance House in his speech at a get-together of Islami Bank affirmed that these institutions of Kuwait won’t sell off their stocks of Islami Bank. Rather they are interested to buy more new shares of the bank.

The IBBL is running its businesses through 276 branches across the country. The aggregate amount of its deposit has reached the level of BDT 420 billion which is 7.7 percent of the country’s total deposits in the banking sector.

BBN/SSR/AD-26May13-11:18 am (BST)