Dubai Group, the diversified financial services firm of the government-owned Dubai Holding, will start a Dh3.67 billion ($1 billion) fund to invest in US equities by next year as it is also looking to Asia, Africa and emerging Europe for growth and expansion.

The US fourth-largest investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc filed for bankruptcy while Bank of America Corp agreed to acquire financial management services firm Merrill Lynch.

Ba’alawy particularly cited Islamic banking as growing rapidly in the MENA region and offering good investment opportunity in the world’s biggest Muslim country of Indonesia, Malaysia and even to non-Muslim investors in other economies.

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