Dallah Al-Baraka

Dallah Albaraka
Founded 1969
Headquarters Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Area served
 Middle East, North Africa, Asia, Europe
Key people
 Saleh Abdullah Kamel, Chairman
Abdullah Saleh Kamel, CEO
Abdulrahman Alrwatie, Senior EVP
Abdulelah Sabbahi, CFO
Yaser Yamani, EVP for Corporate Social Responsibility
Abdulaziz Yamani, EVP for Development
Mohialden Saleh Kamel, EVP for Projects
Abdullah Yamani, EVP & General Counsel
Hadeel Saleh Kamel, Assistant to the CEO
Saud Algufaidi, Assistant to the CEO for Real Estate
Website http://www.dallah.com

Dallah Al-Baraka (Arabic: دله البركة‎) Holding Company (DBHC), is a private multinational corporation based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The company has holdings throughout the Middle East, North Africa, the Far East and Europe. The company is best classed as a conglomerate with investments including the financial, banking, healthcare, real estate, manufacturing, transportation, and operations and maintenance sectors.[1]

Overview

Dallah Albaraka Holding Company (DBHC) is a multinational private corporation based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. DBHC has a broad-based investment portfolio with holdings throughout the Middle East, North Africa, Far East and Europe. It invests across many industries including financial and banking services, health care, manufacturing, real estate, transportation and operations and maintenance.

History

The company was founded in 1969 as a courier service with the name Dallah Establishment by Saleh Abdullah Kamal in Riyadh.[2] By 1979 was one of the largest contractors for the Saudi government.

DBHC was created in 1984 when Dallah Establishment expanded its activities to include financial and banking services, health care, manufacturing, real estate and tourism, trading, agriculture, operations and maintenance and transportation. As DBHC continued to grow, major subsidiaries were established to manage the investments in key sectors. Today, DBHC is one of the largest conglomerates in the region. The Jeddah-based company controls around 300 companies from a variety of industries in more than 40 countries.

DBHC falls under three primary categories: Finance, which includes an international network of Islamic banks, in addition to investment and insurance vehicles; Business, which range from hospital operations to cleaning and maintenance to food manufacture and restaurants; and Media, including one of the Middle East region’s largest satellite broadcaster Arab Radio & Television.[3] Other Dallah Al Baraka investments include manufacturing traffic lights and pesticides, construction materials, and metal pipes. Since 2002, the company merged its international banking operations, including banks in Jordan, Algeria, Sudan, Pakistan, South Africa, Egypt, and Lebanon under a single entity, Al Baraka Banking Group, which is the world's leading Islamic bank.[3]

Saleh Abdullah Kamel's business career with the launch of a courier service when he was young. By the late 1960s, Kamel developed the Dallah Al Baraka Group, which became one of Saudi Arabia's largest and most diverse conglomerates.[3]

In 1969, Dallah diversified to create Dallah Works and Maintenance Company in Riyadh. That company, benefiting from contracts with the Saudi government, including the cleaning and maintenance of the Mecca and Medina holy sites, provided the financial launch for increasingly diverse investments. In the mid-1970s, Dallah expanded its investments to include Dallah Avco Trans Arabia Company, which specialized in airport construction, operation, and maintenance. Dallah Avco Arabia attained a large number of airport and related operations in Saudi, such as the 1988 contract to maintain and run the Saudi’s air traffic control system.[3]

Kamel's interests later turned to the media, and in 1977 Dallah Al Baraka started the Arab Media Company, Saudi Arabia's premiere television, radio, and film production company. Kamel's later increased his media operations to include broadcasting, and in the 80s his company became a founding member of the Middle East Broadcasting Center.[3]

Dallah Al-Baraka Holding company (DBHC) was created in 1984 when Dallah Establishment expanded its activities to include financial and banking services, health care, manufacturing, real estate and tourism, trading, agriculture, operations and maintenance and transportation. As DBHC continued to grow, major subsidiaries were established to manage the investments in key sectors. Today, DBHC is one of the largest conglomerates in the Middle East and the world. In 2004, Group statistics included annual revenue of US$4,960 million and had 38,250 employees.[4]

While Dallah Al Baraka’s bank network grew strong in the Arab and Islamic markets, the Bank of England demanded that Al Baraka bank diversify its shareholders beyond Dallah Al Baraka, and the company had to close the London operation in 1993.[3]

Dallah Al Baraka prepared to unify its Al Baraka bank operations under a single entity in the late 1990s. In 1999, the company hired Kuwait's The International Investor (TII) to help consolidate the Al Baraka network. The relationship led to merger negotiations between the Al Baraka and TII. By 2002, nine of the Al Baraka bank branches were supposed to merge into TII. The new bank would become the third-largest Islamic bank globally.[3]

However, the merger never went through for unknown reasons. Instead, Al Baraka started the AL Baraka Banking Group in Bahrain. That bank then took over nearly all of the existing Al Baraka banks and began centralizing back office functions. By 2004, Al Baraka Banking Group became the holding company for Dallah Al Baraka’s other financial services operations.[3]

In 2004, he joined other investors to establish a new Bahrain-based international Islamic investors bank. The goal was to help establish a capital market in the Middle East, and was expected to begin operations with $2 billion. Saleh Kamel remained at the head of Dallah Al Baraka, which by now is one of the Arab world's biggest and most successful privately held business groups.[3]

In 2012 The Dallah Al Baraka Group , the Islamic Development Bank, and the Qatari government signed a memorandum of understanding to establish an Islamic Bank with $1 billion in capital.[5] The huge Islamic Bank shall provide “liquidity-management solutions in an effort to create an Islamic inter-bank market,” said Ahmad Mohamed Ali Al-Madani, chairman of Jeddah-based IDB.[5] The Doha based bank had a subscribed capital of $500 million and finances infrastructure projects.[5]

Funding Islamic Philanthropy & Allegations

As part of an effort to build inter-religious harmony and bridge the West and the Islamic worldIn 2015, CEO of the al Baraka Group Abdallah Kamel donated $10 million to Yale Law School to establish what has become the country’s top center for the study of islamic law. The Abdallah S. Kamel Center for the Study of Islamic Law and Civilization at Yale Law School will host distinguished scholars in the field of Islamic law and civilization who will spend a semester at the Law School to teach courses in their area of expertise. Visiting professors will also offer public lectures and engage with students and faculty at the Law School and Yale University.

In 2005 both Kamel and Al Baraka were cleared of allegations (no charges were ever filed) that sections of the holding company were involved in illicit financing .[2] Despite controversy surrounding his philanthropic work, Kamel was never charged with knowingly abetting any extremist groups and has consistently stated that his company and philanthropic work remain committed to fostering dialogue and inter-religious understanding.[6] DBHC is active in publicizing its social engagement activities, to include support for the Islamic economic centers at King Abdulaziz University, King Saud University, Azhar University, Al-Faisal University and Yale University.

In 2015, Al Baraka group donated $10 Million for Yale Law School’s “Abdallah S. Kamel Center for the Study of Islamic Law and Civilization.”[7]

Major subsidiaries and business units

Dallah Group

Established in 1997, Dallah Group was orgainzed to perform contracts related to the operation and maintenance of airports and mosques, road construction, driving training schools, traffic control and business solutions, among other business lines.

Dallah Real Estate and Tourism Company

Dallah Real Estate and Tourism Company is a regional real-estate holding company that specializes in real estate advisory, management and development.

Al-Samaha Trade Holding Company

Al-Samaha Trade Holding Company specializes in trade within local and global markets. Its activities include importation of consumer goods, hoist platforms and servicing contracts to operate e-government services.

Al-Jazira Transport Company

The Al-Jazira Transport Company focuses on providing transportation services for Pilgrims and Omra visitors. Its activities also include refrigerated transport (a primary hauler for most of the dairy and juice producers in Saudi Arabia) while its fleet comprises more than 400 trucks and trailers in addition to 100 plus towing trucks and trailers for the transportation of dry and liquid materials, over 2,000 vehicles in total.[8]

Dallah Telecom Company

Dallah Telecom was established in 1990 to modernize telecommunications and information technology in Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region. Since its establishment, Dallah Telecom has implemented high-tech projects for wired and wireless telecommunications on regional and international levels. Dallah Telecom provides digital learning systems to Saudi universities and helps implement long-term education-development strategies. It also cooperates with local and international companies to develop new business opportunities and manage commercial telecommunications projects.

Other investments

Dallah Albaraka Holding Company holds direct and indirect investments in many private and publicly traded/listed companies including:

References

  1. ↑ "Dallah albaraka website". Dallah AlBarakah. Retrieved 2016-04-27.
  2. 1 2 Simpson, Glenn R.; Wartzman, Rick (2001-11-02). "U.S. Probes Saudi Conglomerate For Links to Islamic Militants". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2016-03-18.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "History of Dallah Albaraka Group – FundingUniverse". www.fundinguniverse.com. Retrieved 2016-03-18.
  4. ↑ Archived September 29, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.
  5. 1 2 3 Wardany, Salma El (2013-04-03). "IDB, Qatar and Dallah Albaraka to Set Up $1 Billion Islamic Bank". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2016-03-18.
  6. ↑ Aziz, Omer (2015-09-14). "Wahhabism, Saudi Arabia, and Their Gift to Yale". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2016-03-18.
  7. ↑ "Abdallah S. Kamel, Saudi Businessman, Donates $10M for Islamic Law Center at Yale". NBC News. Retrieved 2016-04-27.
  8. ↑ "Al Jazirah geared up to serve Haj pilgrims". Arab News.
  9. ↑ https://web.archive.org/20101020144323/http://www.dallah.com:80/EN/Investment.aspx?ID=Estate. Archived from the original on October 20, 2010. Retrieved October 20, 2010. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  10. ↑ "قناة اقرأ الفضائية". Iqraa. 24 June 2012. Retrieved 9 December 2013.
  11. ↑ https://web.archive.org/20101020144339/http://www.dallah.com:80/EN/Investment.aspx?ID=Industrial. Archived from the original on October 20, 2010. Retrieved October 20, 2010. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  12. ↑ Archived December 23, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
  13. ↑ https://web.archive.org/20101020144329/http://www.dallah.com:80/EN/Investment.aspx?ID=Finance. Archived from the original on October 20, 2010. Retrieved October 20, 2010. Missing or empty |title= (help)
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