Press Release

Sukuk Market Soars to Record All-time High of $24.5 Billion at Half Year 2007.

London, August 6^th, 2007 ¨C The global Sukuk (Islamic Bond) Market has hit an all-time high with market value now totalling US$24.5bn in the first half of 2007 - a remarkable growth of 75% over the previous year.

The Sukuk Market Report First Half 2007 (covering January ¨C June 2007) by IFIS Analysts compiled data from Islamic Finance Information Service (IFIS) Database which showed that the domestic Sukuk market experienced a growth rate of 71.4% while the international Sukuk market expanded by 83.3% over the previous year. Sovereign Sukuk issues also grew by 521% to US$4.4bn, while Malaysian Ringgit denominated Sukuk accounted for 70% of the market.

CIMB Islamic topped the Overall (International + Domestic) IFIS Bookrunners Sukuk League Table with total Sukuk issuance of US$3.15bn as well as the Domestic Sukuk Bookrunners table valued at US$ 2.87bn. Meanwhile, Deutsche Bank led the IFIS International Sukuk Bookrunners League Table with Sukuk issuance aggregating US$952mn.

¡°This report is very good. I am happy that the distinction between international issuance and domestic issuance has been done,¡± said Badlisyah Abdul Ghani, CEO CIMB Islamic.  ¡°It clearly identifies the lack of domestic market in the GCC as a growth prospect. IFIS has again shown its strong developmental value proposition to the industry¡±.

IFIS Product Manager, Rakiya Sanusi commented ¨C ¡°IFIS has actively tracked the Sukuk market from the year 2000 with a total volume of more than US$85 billion Sukuk issuances. Some of the features of the interactive IFIS Sukuk database includes the ability to sort and view Sukuk issuances by Issuers, Bookrunners, Sovereigns, Corporates, Amount, Country, Currency, Ratings, number of Issues. Issuances are categorized into International and Domestic Sukuk. Click through to the snapshot gives Clients more information on the respective issue including News, Listings and Offering circulars.¡±

The Report is available on www.securities.com/ifis to IFIS Subscribers and available for sale to non subscribers.

Report Highlights

• Qatar Real Estate Investment Company (QREIC) has mandated HSBC to act as the Sole Lead Manager for its first rated corporate. Pricing of the issue will set a benchmark for Qatar corporations to raise funding in the debt capital markets in future.

• DIFC Sukuk had attracted more than US$2bn in orders. The 5-year issue had attracted more than US$2bn in orders. More than two thirds of the subscriptions came from outside the Middle East region, with 54% of subscribers being banks and 35% fund managers.

• DP World sold USS1.5bn of Sukuk in June 2007 to refinance existing debt and fund its expansion. The Sukuk which matures in 2017 is priced 1.15 percentage points over US Treasuries.

About IFIS

IFIS (Islamic Finance Information Service) www.securities.com/ifis is an information service designed to meet the unique requirements of Shariah compliant finance industry participants. IFIS is a single stop resource for investigating market opportunities in the world of Islamic finance. Using proprietary tools and research, IFIS delivers information on:

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• Shariah scholar database
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