Capital market desks from Riyadh to Damascus continue to experience a great deal of backlogs for IPOs that are ready and waiting for the ice to break. Experts say that risk capital will eventually open up to new issuers and the IPO market is expected to pick up further momentum in the third and fourth quarter of 2009. The experts might be right. In late April, and despite the severe downturn in local markets, Gulf investors announced the establishment of a $10 billion Islamic ‘godfather-of-all-banks’ bank to tap interest in sharia-compliant institutions. The new bank will be based in Bahrain and will be called Istikhlaf Bank. Adnan Ahmed Yousif, chairman of the Union of Arab Banks, said plans include a private placement of $6.5 billion and a $3.5 billion IPO in the fourth quarter of 2009. He added that the bank will be listed on the Bahrain Stock Exchange and
