Muscat: Dubai Group, the diversified financial services arm of Dubai Holding, the Dubai government's investment company, has launched of the world's largest reinsurance company in collaboration with two southeast Asian companies.

Called ACR ReTakaful Holdings Limited, it is a 1-billion dirham ($300 million) joint venture between Dubai Group, the Malaysian government investment arm Khazanah Nasional and Singapore-based Asia Capital Reinsurance (ACR).

The deal was completed through Dubai Group's subsidiary, Dubai Banking Group, the global Islamic finance-compliant investment company.

“We are pleased to announce this landmark joint venture with our Malaysian and Singaporean partners, which reinforces our strong presence in Asian markets,” Dubai Holding chairman Mohammed AlGergawi said.

“Our success stems from our in-depth knowledge of the specific requirements in the Islamic finance industry.”

The new company will focus on general (non-life), non-cyclical and large speciality risks in infrastructure and transportation industries such as aviation, marine, energy and engineering and will lead the way in channelling these traditional risks from the conventional market into `takaful' or Islamic insurance concept channels.

“The joint venture comes at a time when the Middle East's retakaful market is expanding,” said executive chairman of Dubai Group, Soud Ba'alawy.

“Through our strategic investments, we will continue to play a major role in the regional Islamic finance sector.”

Dubai Banking Group currently has investments in leading Islamic financial institutions, including Dubai Bank in the UAE and Malaysia's largest Islamic Bank, Bank Islam, with combined assets in excess of $10 billion.

Khazanah is also the joint largest investor in ACR, and both have an existing partnership in a reinsurance entity in Malaysia.

“We have had a vision for a global retakaful player since our investment into ACR in December 2006, and this retakaful company is the fulfilment of a condition from that transaction,” said Dato Azman Bin Hj. Mokhtar, managing director of Khazanah.

Source : IANS