Majid Al Sayed Bader Al-Refai was on the verge of signing up his placement agent, UBS, for the launch of a $375m share issue for Unicorn Investment Bank, when terrorists struck in the US on September 11, 2001. Plans for this innovative Islamic investment bank were put on hold and Mr al-Refai had to wait three more years for the launch of his institution.
In 2004, when he felt the environment had settled down enough to relaunch the share issue, UBS again acted as his placement agent, but on this occasion the bank’s initial capital was restricted to just $111m.
