2005 SPONSORS

The National Commercial Bank (NCB) was the first bank established in Saudi Arabia and was formed in 1953 pursuant to a Royal Decree by the late King Abdulaziz Bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud. The bank is the largest in terms of capital both in Saudi Arabia and in the Middle East. The Bank's paid-up capital is SR 6,000 million (US$ 1,600 million). The Bank operates the largest dealing room in foreign exchange and money market in the Middle East and operates 891 Automated Teller Machines and 5,416 Point-of -Sale Terminals. NCB operates 2 international branches in Beirut and Bahrain, and 4 representative offices in London, Seoul, Tokyo, and Singapore. They operate a comprehensive array of alternative channels for services delivery, including Al Ahli Telephone Banking, Al Ahli Mobile Banking, Al Ahli Online, Al Ahli Trade and Al Ahli International Brokerage. The Bank was the first Saudi Bank to launch Credit Cards for settlement of online purchases. In cooperation with Saudi Telecommunication Company, the Bank pioneered mobile banking in Saudi Arabia by introducing Al-Ahli SMS Service, a service which provides customers with easy and secure contact with their NCB accounts via mobile telephones. Moreover, the National Commercial Bank was the first Saudi Arabian bank to introduce mutual funds in the Kingdom in 1979 and remains the leader of the industry because of its extensive experience and expertise in the field. The bank is acknowledged internationally as the pioneer and the innovator in Islamic Sharia-compliant mutual funds. This achievement was recognized when NCB was awarded the Euromoney International award for the Best Islamic Asset Management House for two consecutive years in 2003 and 2004. Website: www.alahli.com

A full-service index provider, Dow Jones Indexes develops, maintains and licenses indexes for use as benchmarks and as the basis of investment products. Best known for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Dow Jones Indexes also is co-owner of the Dow Jones STOXX indexes, the world's leading pan-European indexes, and provides the Dow Jones Titans family, which includes blue-chip indexes for various countries, regions and sectors. Together with Wilshire Associates, Dow Jones Indexes provides the Dow Jones Wilshire index family, which features the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 and is expanding to include a complete global family of country, region, sector, cap-range and style indexes. In addition to equity indexes, Dow Jones Indexes offers a number of alternatives indexes, including measures of the hedge fund, commodity and credit derivative markets. Dow Jones indexes are maintained according to a clear, unbiased and systematic methodology that is fully integrated within index families. Daily values of Dow Jones indexes are distributed via major real-time and end-of-day market-data vendors, are published in financial publications and on financial Web sites, and can be downloadedfrom the Dow Jones Indexes Web site at www.djindexes.com.

AlMadar Finance & Investment, KCSC “AlMadar” is a Kuwaiti Shareholding Investment Company, with a paid up capital of KD 25.3 million. The Company conducts its activities in accordance with Sharia guidelines as established by the Company's Sharia Board. AlMadar offers a range of services relating to Investment Funds, Portfolios, Custody, Equities, Securitization, Indices, Placement, arranging corporate finance transactions, investment banking, conversion of existing conventional structures into Sharia compliant structures as well as other advisory services offered to conventional financial institutions. In relation to investment funds, AlMadar engages in Sharia compliant Advisory agreements to assist Asset Managers with fund structuring, Sharia Compliance reviewing of documentations, screening, dividend cleansing, and Sharia compliance monitoring & reviewing with year end opinions. AlMadar also engages in asset management activities through various portfolio and funds, for both local and international equities. Presently, AlMadar has the Shuwaikh Real Estate Fund and the AlMadar US Index Equity Fund. AlMadar is also, involved in the real estate through its flagship subsidiary; Dar Al Thuraya Real Estate, KCSC which engages in direct investment in residential, commercial and industrial properties. AlMadar is a major Sharia Compliant Index provider. Presently AlMadar has a total of 30 Islamic indices; 12 indices for Kuwait, 16 for the GCC region, 1 for the US, and 1 for the MENA region. AlMadar Kuwaiti indices presently dominate the Kuwaiti markets as they are licensed, and they are being used to manage all the Sharia Compliant Funds in Kuwait except for one. Moreover, currently, AlMadar Indices have more than $500 million under management. AlMadars' finance activities includes Financing merchandize requisitioned by Cooperative Societies from their suppliers. Financing commercial, residential rental and industrial real estate acquisitions by investors Financing asset acquisitions primarily of medium sized companies for their corporate and operational needs Financing the acquisition and holding of inventories of medium to smaller sized companies. Website: www.almadar-fi.com

What is currently one of the Middle East’s most exciting property developments is a natural extension of Bahrain’s heritage. The project has not only been designed to address every single need of the highly diverse international finance sector, but it goes much further. Bahrain Financial Harbour (BFH) covers an architecturally stunning 380,000 square metres of waterfront property, featuring high specification office space, luxury residential accommodation, together with retail, leisure and entertainment opportunities that tenants, investors and visitors would expect. The first phase of BFH is the Financial Centre, which is developed exclusively to provide a high-tech, sophisticated environment for international and regional banking integrated with a major urban and retail complex. It will offer more than 125,000 square metres of office space and over 11,000 square metres of retail, dining and leisure space. The Financial Centre will be equipped with cutting-edge technological amenities including wireless hot spots to high-speed data network. It will provide optimum infrastructure and office facilities including highest quality office space with standby generators, Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS), central building management & sophisticated security systems including CCTV and access control. Website: www.bfharbour.com

IPSCO, Integrated Products and Services Company W.L.L was formed in 2002 in response to growing demand in GCC and Pan Arab markets for business services and products that are world class. IPSCO exists to enhance your human resource assets, suggest efficiency changes to your business processes and systems, and provide added value services so you can concentrate on what you do best. IPSCO offers complete business solutions in three core areas: Marketing Communication and Media Management Integrated image enhancement activities (Marketing Communications) Crisis communication planning, media monitoring, press conferences Human Resources Strategic Analysis Executive selection and recruitment campaigns Behavior based interviewing and candidate profiling Design customized compensation and benefits systems, promotion plans and manpower budgeting Develop personnel policies and procedures Strategic and Core Business Process Assessment and Analysis Business Process Outsourcing Strategic Analysis and Risk Assessment Business Process Re-engineering Identify cost saving opportunities Business Process Risk Analysis Determining Risk Appetite For more information, please contact: Leith Ashkenani, Managing Partner Al-Dawlia Commercial Complex Tower 1, Floor 5, Office 5 Kuwait City, Kuwait Tel: +965.242.7772 Fax: +965.243.1410 eMail: leith@ipsco.com.kw