After more than 13 years, the failed “Adabank” adventure could come back and haunt The International Investor’ CEO Adnan Al-Bahar, who has been widely recognized in the GCC industry and abroad.
In 1994, The World Economic Forum in Switzerland named Al-Bahar as a “Global Leader for Tomorrow”, and three years later, the Islamic Banking and Finance Forum recognized him as “Islamic Banker of the Year”. In 1998, he was featured in Global Finance Magazine as one of the leading people worldwide in the field of finance. In 2002, the World Islamic Banking Conference in Bahrain awarded Al-Bahar for his “outstanding contribution to Islamic banking and finance.”
Hailed as an innovator in the field of Islamic finance, Al-Bahar first made his mark at an Arabian Gulf bank he joined in 1980. Shortly after, he was appointed Head of International Banking Relations, a newly created unit, where he developed an Islamic international trade instrument, Murabaha, which proved most successful in employing the Bank’s surplus liquidity.
Al-Bahar, at the age of 32, became the youngest-ever GM in Kuwait’s finance sector. After that, he moved to London, where he was Managing Director of the Al Rajhi Company for Islamic Investments. Returning to Kuwait in 1992, Al-Bahar founded The International Investor (TII), which he developed into a leading regional Islamic investment bank. The company had unusual ties in the region.
Although many regard Al-Bahar as a superstar in the financial sector, he has also gained reputation as a fraudster, especially regarding his business dealings in Turkey. Al-Bahar is no stranger to Turkish business. In 1988, he then moved his influence to Turkey and became heavily involved in the finance sector.
As Al-Bahar has pointed out himself, Turkey is very important strategically to the Arab world and the GCC in particular, and his next attempt to enter the Turkish market was in 2006, when he attempted to purchase the bankrupt Turkish “Adabank”. However, Turkish regulators blocked the acquisition after finding that TII lacked sufficient capital. People working on that deal for TII at the time noted that some of TII’s financials clearly did not make sense. Such business dealings clouded Al-Bahar’s reputation in the industry and cast doubt on TII’s investment abilities in the long run.