As part of its proactive growth-through-acquisition strategy, Unicorn acquired a 22.2% equity stake in Pakistan’s Dawood Islamic Bank (formerly First Dawood Islamic Bank), a newly established Shari’ah-compliant commercial bank, in June 2006. Headquartered in Karachi, Dawood Islamic Bank plans to open a total of 20 branches across Pakistan within its first five years of operation.The stake in Dawood Islamic Bank provides Unicorn with access to the Pakistan market with its 160 million inhabitants, 97% of whom are Muslim. Islamic deposits represented less than 1% of total deposits in Pakistan in 2004, but this figure is projected to reach 10% of total deposits, or approximately US$13 billion, by 2014.
