Business

National Bonds offers smaller prizes but keeps Dh1m jackpot

The UAE's National Bonds Corporation doubles the number of prizes it offers, although the total cash pot remains the same.  

Ben Flanagan

January 04, 2012

  • English
  • Arabic

National Bonds Corporation, a Sharia-compliant investment scheme based in the UAE, has almost doubled the number of cash prizes it offers.

However, the total prize money - Dh670,000 (US$182,407) per week, plus a monthly draw for Dh1 million - has not changed, according to calculations by The National.

National Bonds said yesterday that it had changed its prize structure to offer 9,635 cash prizes per week, compared with 5,135 previously. The top prize of Dh1m will continue be awarded once a month.

National Bonds has started offering lower-value cash prizes - Dh50. By offering 9,000 prizes of this value, it can claim that customers have a higher chance of winning. National Bonds plans to offer customers more chances to win the longer they hold bonds, according to a statement issued by the company.

This would also give long-term holders of bonds a higher chance of winning cash prizes, it said.

Mohammed Qasim Al Ali, the chief executive of National Bonds, said the scheme offered "competitive returns".

National Bonds said it gave away 272,167 prizes last year, including 12 Dh1m cash awards.

National Bonds announced an annual profit rate of 3.78 per cent in 2010. A representative of the company said the profit rate for last year would not be announced until the end of this month.

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Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer

Sanju

Produced: Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rajkumar Hirani

Director: Rajkumar Hirani

Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Vicky Kaushal, Paresh Rawal, Anushka Sharma, Manish’s Koirala, Dia Mirza, Sonam Kapoor, Jim Sarbh, Boman Irani

Rating: 3.5 stars

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