http://www.tradearabia.com/tanews/newsdetails_snBANK_article11446...

http://www.tradearabia.com/tanews/newsdetails_snBANK_article114464.html

Dubai Islamic Bank is in talks with companies including Australia's Anzon Energy and Abu Dhabi's Aabar Petroleum about investing in Middle East and African oil fields, an official said.

Millennium Finance Corp, an investment bank controlled by Dubai Islamic, is setting up a $5 billion group of funds that comply with Islamic principles to invest in mainly unlisted companies in energy, telecommunications and other industries.

The energy fund, to which investors such as Dubai Islamic and state-owned Dubai World will contribute as much as $1 billion next month, has identified four to five potential investments in the first year, said Laurent Lavigne du Cadet, managing director for oil, gas and energy for Millennium Finance.

They include oilfield projects in Syria, Sudan and West Africa, de Cadet told Reuters in Dubai.

'One of our main strategic objectives is to co-invest in these fields with operating companies that have a lot of expertise to identify assets and to invest,' de Cadet said.

The manager of the seven funds, Millennium Private Equity, is also talking to RAK Petroleum in the United Arab Emirates about joint investments, de Cadet said. Millennium Finance Corp owns Millennium Private Equity.