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National Bonds Slated to Post Record Returns for 2008

DUBAI — As a turbulent 2008 comes to a close, financial institutions the world over are reviewing the past year and looking ahead to 2009.

National Bonds Corporation can look back on an excellent year, in which it saw steady growth and minimal impact of the worldwide financial crisis.

With most of its returns accomplished in the first half of 2008, National Bonds was perfectly positioned to weather the storms of the second half of the year.

Moreover most of the fund is being invested in the UAE.

“Being the National Savings Scheme, our Investment Committee has concentrated on short term Shariah-compliant money market instruments avoiding high risk investments,” says National Bonds Corporation’s CEO Mohamed Qasim Al Ali.

As a Shariah compliant institution, National Bonds Corporation adheres to strict Shari’a guidelines regarding its investments, while at the same time it focuses on generating high returns for its bondholders.

“A great deal of our profits in the second half of the year were derived from revenues generated by Islamic short term investments where we obtained better profit rates on a wholesale basis.” says Al Ali.

National Bonds Corporation will announce its 2008 results early next year, with returns for bondholders expected to be higher than 2007. At a rate of 6.03 per cent the 2007 returns for bondholders were higher than the returns on Savings accounts in both conventional and Islamic banks.

Against the backdrop of the current financial situation, Islamic financing has emerged as the safest way of investing, reinforcing National Bonds Corporation’s position as “Everyone’s favorite place to save”.

Building on the successes of the past year, National Bonds Corporation has an optimistic outlook for the year 2009, with expansion plans for both the investment fund and the product portfolio.

—business@khaleejtimes.com