Global Ikhwan Group: Banking on faith

Courting Muslim entrepreneurs to expand on its existing global network covering 20 nations

by ASUKI ABAS

NOT many privately owned companies in Malaysia can genuinely claim to have a global presence, even if they boast multi-million ringgit assets or employ thousands of staff. GISB Holdings Sdn Bhd (GISBH), commonly referred to as the Global Ikhwan Group, is a rare exception.

The private Muslim conglomerate, with assets totalling approximately RM325 million worldwide, has built a commendable network of 415 business outlets across 20 countries in Asia, Europe, Africa and Australasia.

Founded in 2010 from the remnants of the Arqam Group, Global Ikhwan boasts an impressive annual revenue of RM187 million, rivalling that of many public-listed companies.

The group employs 5,346 staff under its 25 subsidiaries. Among its prized assets are, a desert oasis in Saudi Arabia, restaurants in London, Paris, Istanbul, Dubai and Makkah, accommodations in Turkiye, a hotel in Sarajevo and a 120-acre (48.56ha) estate in Perth.

However, Global Ikhwan is not resting on its laurels. The group is determined to exponentially expand its local and global footprint in its second decade of operations, particularly in its area of expertise — halal food products.

With its current ownership of five local factories producing sauces, cooking oil, noodle, flour and rice, Global Ikhwan aims to develop a network of 25 factories across the country.

Executive chairman and CEO Nasiruddin Mohd Ali said once these factories are operationalised, the group would have enough economy of scale to expand its supermarket network.

“If these 25 factories can be built, we can build (additional) supermarkets…three or four supermarkets (per factory) where we can co-market with other popular halal products under other brands,” he said in a recent interview with The Malaysian Reserve (TMR) and Utusan Malaysia.

The group is involved in trading, manufacturing, food business, agribusiness (poultry, livestock and fishery), education and biotechnology.

Global Ikhwan owns 125 restaurants (of which 75 are in Malaysia and 50 abroad), 65 bakeries (49 local, 16 abroad), 39 supermarkets and marts (36 local, three abroad), 26 galleries and boutiques (20 local, six abroad), six factories (five local, one abroad) and more than 160 other business premises (126 local, 38 abroad).

Among the more famous of Global Ikhwan’s Nur Malaysia restaurants located overseas are the Nur Muhammad in Istanbul, Nur Malaysia Al-Haram and Nur Malaysia Makkah in Saudi Arabia, and Nur Malaysia Paris which was frequented by the Malaysian delegations during the recently concluded 2024 Olympics.

It has also partnered with various foreign Muslim corporations, such as Saudi Arabian conglomerate Alamoudi Beverage, to produce their own export-class Ikhwan brand fresh beverages in Makkah.

Global Ikhwan’s business expansion depends purely on internal funding and co-investments with individuals or corporations as they adhere to the Islamic principles in doing business.

Nur Malaysia Al-Haram offers Malaysian taste in Makkah for the umrah and haj pilgrims — Pic courtesy of GISBH

Biggest Obstacles

Nasiruddin admitted that, besides the challenge of coordinating strategies among Muslim businesses, funding has been one of the group’s most significant obstacle.

“Incoordination (of strategy) is the biggest, which means we need to sit down, we take the Islamic system (as guidance), and we discuss. We won’t get far if we could not agree on the outset of how to proceed with these collaborations.

“Capital is the second biggest challenge. While there are many Muslim tycoons out there, everyone is holding on (to their wealth), they won’t contribute.

“They have this distrust issue (of what Global Ikhwan is doing). What is wrong with contributing for the betterment of the ummah? As some people say, this is economic jihad (struggle).”

He said while these Muslim businessmen acknowledged the potentials of Global Ikhwan’s businesses, not many are willing to put their money where their mouth is.

“Most of them praises us, and would say:

‘This is good business Ikhwan Mart, so can you come to my area and build one? Or a supermarket?’. Just like that, whereas we know that these guys have millions in their bank account.

“And we heard they all keep their wealth overseas. Instead of doing that why don’t they offer us, ‘Here is my RM3 million, use it for the business and then after three years I will take it back’ for instance, if they’re really serious in wanting to promote Muslim businesses,” Nasiruddin questioned.

The group’s primary internal funding source is the contributions made by their own existing business entities and subsidiaries whenever it is needed to finance a new venture. There is no fixed amount, as these subsidiaries will contribute willingly according to their affordability.

For investment collaborations with outside investors, Global Ikhwan strictly applies the Islamic concept of Mudarabah or profit sharing. The rate of return varies and the group had made it a transparent process for a fair deal.

“There are some of them who gave us loans, where we pay back in time, sometimes within one year, or two or three years. Some had actually said that they only want a minimum amount of profit, so we pay what is due.”

Wake-up Call

He added, the ongoing war on Gaza should serve as a wake-up call for Muslim entrepreneurs to unite and collaborate to strengthen their collective economic power.

While condemning the terrorist regime Israel’s aggressions against fellow Muslims in Palestine, Nasiruddin said the war has attracted people from other beliefs to convert en masse to Islam and presents an opportunity for halal business to thrive.

“It’s high time for us to show that Islam is the way of life — through our business practice and our faith. We have already started courting global Muslim entrepreneurs, leading to this successful expo that we held,” he added, referring to the International Islamic Trade and Tourism Expo (IITTE) 2024 held at the Malacca International Trade Centre from Aug 1-4.

More than 325 exhibitors participated in the private exposition and managed to attract 60,000 visitors including foreign delegates and businesses.

Another jewel in the Global Ikhwan stable is the desert oasis Wadi Berkat Syarikat Global Ikhwan Hudaibiyah, a one-stop recreational centre offering accommodation and sports activities in Saudi Arabia.

In 2023, Global Ikhwan invested more than 6.5 million riyal (RM7.7 million) in the three-acre facility, located in the Hudaibiyah valley merely 23km from Makkah.

The centre has become a must-visit destination for pilgrimage and umrah performing Malaysians as well as Muslims from other countries especially Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, India, Turkiye, Algeria, France and Australia.

Barely two years since its operations, Wadi Berkat Hudaibiyah — which has been made viral on the social media by visiting celebrities and dignitaries — has attracted more than 200,000 visitors.

According to Nasiruddin, Global Ikhwan’s beachhead strategy of establishing collaborations with the local Muslim community in every new market it ventured into have been paying dividends in expanding its global business.

“We even have businessmen from other countries who expressed interest to collaborate with us in another Muslim markets, namely in our poultry venture in Southern Thailand.”

Unconventional Success

While some parties are mystified by the success of Global Ikhwan’s “unconventional” methods, Nasiruddin claimed that even more non-Muslims and foreigners understood that profit-oriented methods are not the only way to drive businesses forward after observing the group’s operations.

For instance, Ikhwan Café in Perth has introduced the “Pay As You Wish” promotion on Fridays and Sundays, which was originally designed as a charity concept to enable the poor to eat and pay whatever they can afford.

“Everybody was surprised (by this concept). And frankly, even we were surprised as well, with the end result — we ended up recording our highest sales during these days!” Nasiruddin shared.

Charity is deeply ingrained in Global Ikhwan’s DNA as it is the backbone of its corporate mission which is to provide service to society, in line with the hadith of the Prophet Muhammad who said: “The best of people are those who bring the most benefit to others.”

Among the notable charitable projects that have been undertaken by Global Ikhwan is the Blessed Friday programme, where packed meals are prepared for the poor and homeless. It was implemented since 2018 in 17 countries where the group is operating.

During the Covid-19 lockdown, Global Ikhwan spent approximately RM3 million for the Caring Kitchen Programme in Malaysia, offering free meals three times a day to those badly affected, benefitting more than 2,300 families and 11,000 individuals.

The group works closely with a foundation, Yayasan Kebajikan Perkhidmatan & Perubatan Malaysia — an organisation dedicated to provide welfare and medical assistance in various programmes. Among those is a running Free Health Programme, where the foundation’s health personnel travels from state to state to provide free medical check-ups, treatments and dental care.

Regional Ambition

According to Nasiruddin, Global Ikhwan has a huge ambition to establish a regional halal poultry business with potential exports into the Muslim markets especially the Organisa tion of Islamic Council countries.

The global halal market is expected to grow to US$2.8 trillion (RM12.5 trillion) by 2025, but Nasiruddin was disappointed as a large slice of the exports originated from non-Muslim countries.

“Malaysia, for instance, has been preparing to become a regional hub for halal food products for some time now, yet the actual participation of local Muslim businesses remains very low.

“We have sought involvement from foreign Muslim investors, but they are hesitant to come because they know that the majority of our halal food products — around 85% — are actually produced by non-Muslim companies,” he said.

Southern Thailand, according to him, offers a different opportunity as the region was already known as a food product import-export hub and operated mostly by its large Muslim community.

Nasiruddin added that the group has been engaging with authorities in southern Thailand in recent years and has embarked on collaborations to develop neglected paddy fields.

This effort has led to a multi-million ringgit venture in the form of the Ikhwan Healthy Chicken Project, which is projected to operate across all five southern Thailand provinces.

Implementation Efficiency

One of the impressive traits of Global Ikhwan’s business approach is the speed with which it implements deals and ventures. Once an agreement is reached, the team quickly establishes its presence.

In the Philippines, after first contact with the Islamic community in Marawi City in August 2023, Global Ikhwan promptly opened a Nur Malaysia café on Dec 11 of the same year. The team continued to be active in the following months.

By 2024, it had launched a vegetable planting programme on Feb 21, opened a food kiosk at Soti Fuel Marawi City on March 1 and officially inaugurated a halal chicken slaughterhouse for the city on April 4.

When asked why Global Ikhwan seems to expand its businesses more easily in neighbouring countries compared to Malaysia, Nasiruddin cautiously suggested that the stigma associated with the group’s origins in the banned Al-Arqam movement might be a factor.

“It was very difficult for us to get approvals from the authorities, while other parties would not face such issues. This stigma is something we hear about frequently. All we can do is ask them to provide proof of any deviation,” he explained.

According to Nasiruddin, the group has been cleared of any wrongdoing by the police’s Special Branch, but negative rumours persist within the religious community.

Global Ikhwan’s roots trace back to the Arqam Group, the business arm of the religious movement Al-Arqam, founded by its spiritual leader Ashaari Muhammad. Al-Arqam was declared illegal by the National Fatwa Council in 1994, and Ashaari was detained for two years under the Internal Security Act. He passed away on May 13, 2010.

The Arqam Group underwent a rebranding to become Rufaqa Corp and was later renamed Global Ikhwan with GISB Holdings as its registered name shortly before Ashaari’s death.

Nasiruddin emphasised that the group remains committed to addressing stakeholders’ concerns and clarifying that its past is behind it. He underscored that Global Ikhwan now operates as a commercial entity, adhering strictly to Islamic principles.

“Let’s discuss any problems or queries. Through discussion, we were able to hold the IITTE expo in Malacca. If the religious office raises any concerns, call us to explain, and we’ll address them.

“For us, engagement and dialogue are key. When people come to us, we can discuss and build understanding.

“In Southern Thailand, for instance, they reached out to us and got to know our methods. Even non-Muslims became close to us after seeing our practices in raising healthy chickens. They liked what they saw and now want us to rear chickens for them as well,” Nasiruddin concluded.


  • This article first appeared in The Malaysian Reserve weekly print edition