Bosnia’s bourse, Gulf-owned bank launch Balkans’ first Islamic share index

SARAJEVO / Reuters

Bosnia’s Sarajevo Stock Exchange (SASE) and Gulf-owned Bosna Bank International (BBI) launched the Balkans’ first index of listed firms compliant with Islamic investment principles on Monday in a bid to attract more investors in local equities.
The index has 25 constituents: companies with the highest market capitalisation and revenues, including the country’s second-largest telecoms firm BH Telecom, power utilities EPBiH and EPHZHB, Bosnalijek pharmaceuticals company and others.
SASE and BBI, the only bank in Bosnia operating along Islamic banking principles, have compiled a list of 117 companies that meet Islamic criteria. Companies involved in conventional finance, alcohol, non-halal food, entertainment – such as gambling – and the tobacco industry are excluded from the list.
BBI General Manager Amer Bukvic said he expected particular interest in producers of halal food, a growing industry sector seen as boosting agriculture and tourism, providing much-needed growth in impoverished Bosnia.
Bosnia has seen a growing number of Arab tourists and investors in the retail sector over recent years.
The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) owns 46 percent of BBI, while the Dubai Islamic Bank and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank each own a 27-percent stake.
SASE, based in Bosnia’s autonomous Bosniak-Croat Federation, is one of two bourses in Bosnia and has 400 listed companies. It is owned by Bosnian brokerages, Turkey’s Borsa Istanbul, Takasbank and the Turkish central securities depository.
Both SASE and the Banja Luka Stock Exchange, based in the Serb Republic, Bosnia’s other autonomous half, have seen sharp falls in trade in recent years due to the global downturn.