“We want to start providing Shariah-compliant brokerage services during the fourth quarter of 2012,” Ahmed Rizkallah, country manager of Ridge Islamic, reportedly told the newswire. However, Rizkallah declined to name any possible targets or specify a potential deal size.

Ridge Islamic was formed this year through the acquisition by Dubai-based Ridge Solutions International (of Egyptian asset management firm El Rashad Holding), the report said.

In related news - and, as also mentioned by the newswire, in a sign that prospects for Islamic finance within the country seem to have improved - Baring Asset Management recently said that the equity markets in the Middle East and North Africa have borne up well in recent months. The firm noted how the MENA region, for example, has significantly outstripped its wider frontier markets cohort this year, despite economic/political troubles in countries like Egypt and Syria.