Global Arab Network | Tunis Bay Financial Harbour purchases land to build its premises in Tunisia

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Tunis Bay Financial Harbour purchases land to build its premises in Tunisia

Global Arab Network - - George Haddad

Tuesday, 29 December 2009 15:08

Tunisia_finance_Dr._Esam_Janahi_and_Minister_HE_Redha_Gueirira_bahrain

Tunisia, Bahrain - Tunisian banking sector has undergone major reforms aimed at consolidating its financial foundations, restructuring the sector, improving its intervention and adapting it to transformations and developments on a worldwide scale. Today, Tunis Bay Financial Harbour (TBFH) Project Company has announced that it has signed a purchase agreement for land to build the Tunis Financial Harbour (TFH) project.

Tunis Financial Harbour is located just north of Gammarth, Tunis Financial Harbour (TFH) will populate an area of around 520 hectares approximately ten minutes away from the most affluent areas in Tunis including La Marsa and Carthage. TFH will comprise four distinct business clusters including investment banking and advisory centre, a corporate centre, a Takaful/ insurance hub and the regions first international financial exchange. Alongside these functions, an international business school will be built to equip tomorrow’s graduates with the skills demanded by leading players from the international finance and support services community.

The land purchase agreement was signed at the Ministry of Public Domains and Real Estate Affairs during a land transfer agreement ceremony signed between His Excellency Mr. Ridha Gueirira, Tunisian Minister of Public Domains and Real Estate Affairs and Dr. Esam Janahi, Chairman of Tunis Bay Financial Harbour Project Company. The agreement was signed after all requirements were met, including the establishment of a project company in Tunis, completing the framework for a financial services sector and finalizing the project master plan.

During the ceremony Dr. Janahi also announced the appointment of SCET, the leading Tunisian multi-disciplinary engineering company as the infrastructure project managers of the initiative and STUDI Group, a Tunisian engineering consultancy to undertake the infrastructure design for the whole project.

Commenting on the land transfer agreement and the consultants appointments, Dr. Janahi said, “The Government of Tunisia have provided us with wholehearted support and must be credited for much of the progress made so far on the Tunis Financial Harbour initiative. The signing of the land purchase agreement and appointment of the consultants signals the commencement of the implementation phase of the project. TFH will represent North Africa's first sustainable offshore banking hub, harnessing the impressive economic potential within the Tunisian economy and sponsor socio-economic growth for generations to come."

"We are confident that the appointment of leading Tunisian engineering firms, SCET and STUDI Group will bring the required global expertise and local knowledge to build a world class infrastructure on which TFH will be developed.”

“The designs for the project’s entire infrastructure are expected to be completed by June 2010 after which the development of the project will commence in September of that year,” he continued. “Activities in the initial stages will focus on building the framework components of the project.”

Situated in Tunis Bay, Tunis Financial Harbour (TFH) is the brainchild of leading Middle Eastern Islamic investment bank Gulf Finance House (GFH) and will play host to some of the world’s leading names in finance, advisory and support services at a strategic crossroads between the European, North African and Middle Eastern markets.

Gulf Finance House is established in 1999, Bahrain based Gulf Finance House (GFH) is one of the most successful and innovative Islamic investment banks in the Middle East. GFH historically focused on the conception and delivery of high value economic infrastructure projects. The Bank has also offered a diversified product range with a number of venture capital, private equity and asset management initiatives in addition to pioneering a number of Islamic financial institutions.

In addition to its share listings on the Kuwait and Bahraini Stock Exchange’s and the Dubai Financial Market, 2007 witnessed the Bank’s GDR listing on the London Stock Exchange. Over the past year, GFH has evolved its business model with a view to establishing itself as the world’s leading Islamic investment bank. Under this new structure GFH will essentially operate with two primary businesses, GFH Real Estate & Infrastructure and GFH Capital.

Tunisia banking sector has undergone major reforms aimed at consolidating its financial foundations, restructuring the sector, improving its intervention and adapting it to transformations and developments on a worldwide scale. The sector has gone through three essential stages:
• Adjustment of the banks’ financial situation .
• Modernization and restructuring of the banking sector.
• Improvement of bank services and reinforcement of the rules of governance.

Through the three essential stages, Tunisia banking sector has achieved the following:

- Adoption of prudential management applicable on the international scale: solvability ratio, liquidity ratio, assessment, and claim classification norms and provisions constitution.
- Suppression of credit coaching policy and replacing it with a monitoring system to make banks responsible in terms of credit granting.
- Establishment of a short-term capital market for banks and companies through the use of the instruments of the monetary market and the establishment of new financial products such as deposit certificates issued by the banks and treasury bonds to finance companies.
- State support in financing according to market conditions through treasury bills.
- Suppression of preferential interest rates and total release of banking conditions: interest rate and commission.
• Modernization and restructuring of the banking sector
The modernization program of the banking sector (1997) is based on three axes:
- Modernization of bank services by implementing an electronic compensation system and the development of electronic banking system,
- Promulgation in 2001 of the law relative to credit institutions for the establishment of an all-purpose bank concept and the establishment of a legal framework relative to debt recovery companies.
- Restructuring the sector through the merging of two development banks (BDET and BNDT) with a public commercial bank (STB), privatization of 3 banks (UIB, Banque du Sud and BTKD) and the transformation of all development banks into all-purpose banks.
• Results of the reforms
• Diversity of sources of financing
- 20 all-purpose banks
- 10 leasing companies
- 2 business banks
- 2 factoring companies
- 8 offshore banks
- 11 foreign bank representation offices (only 6 in 1986)
• Solidity index

These reforms also resulted in improving the financial basis of the banks through:

- An increase in the banks’ equity capital from 420 MD in 1986 to 3,410 MD at the end of 2007.
- An increase in the reserves that amounted to 3,096 MD at the end of 2007.
- A rate of risk coverage of 11.3% at the end of 2007 (as against an international standard of 8%)
- A rate of listed debts of 17.6% at the end of 2007.
- A rate of listed debts cover of 53.2% at the end of 2007.

Global Arab Network

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