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BankIslami Pakistan has launched the country's First Shariah Compliant Commercial Paper (CP) Issue worth Rs1.5 billion for Hascol Petroleum. Hascol is Pakistan’s second largest Oil Marketing Company (OMC) in terms of volume managed through its more than 140,000 MT of oil storages and 498 retail outlets. BankIslami Pakistan acted as Mandated Lead Arranger & Advisor, Issuing & Paying Agent and Investment Agent for this CP Issue which was structured based on the Bai Salam cum Wakala model. The CP issue was oversubscribed by more than 80% of the issue size. The introduction of Shariah Compliant Commercial Paper is aimed to broaden avenues for Mutual Funds and other Institutional investors to invest in short-term/fixed income instruments in a Shariah-compliant manner.

The market for Gulf Arab bonds and Sukuk achieved an all-time high issuance of 70 billion U.S. dollars in 2017, with sustained investor appetite expected in 2018. A recent study titled "The GCC (Gulf Co-operation Council) Fixed Income Market: Then and Now," said that 70% of all debt and Sukuk issuances were from sovereigns, while 30% were from corporations. The study was conducted by Emirates NBD and Swiss portfolio management firm Fisch Asset Management. Regarding the outlook for 2018, increased debt issuance could continue in the region despite elevated geopolitical instability. According to Usman Ahmed, Head of Investments at Emirates NBD, growth of the GCC's debt investor base is expected to continue in 2018, with demand coming from the record inflows to emerging markets and supply provided by the diversification needs of the region.

Environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) and sustainable investing (SI) are central topics for policymakers, institutional investors and corporates. According to a 2017 study by BNP Paribas, 46% of asset owners plan to have 50% or more of their investments in funds that incorporate ESG or responsible investing. Investors are increasingly investing based on the ESG profiles of the investee companies and using green, sustainable bonds (52%). Asia-Pacific investors are leapfrogging their regional counterparts. Despite the positive developments, there is still much work to do and challenges to overcome. A lack of robust ESG data is the biggest issue for asset owners and asset managers. The biggest reason why ESG is not part of investment decision-making today is a lack of clarity over how to define it. In November 2017, the European Investment Bank and the China Green Finance Committee presented a project to facilitate the establishment of a common language in green finance.

The First Investor (TFI) Qatar, a subsidiary of Barwa Bank Group has acquired a new office building in Frankfurt. The asset is another unique blend to TFI Euro Income Fund, which was launched in 2017 with sharia compliant stature. Europe continues to provide excellent investment and business environments given low inflation and low interest rate regime. TFI is keen to pursue its investment strategy with the aim to help clients achieve their objectives in a very challenging business environment. By that, TFI will soon launch another UK Income Fund and a US Income Fund together with many investment opportunities during 2018.

The growing popularity of Islamic finance has led to the constant development of new Shariah-compliant investment products. Most of those products have been developed and popularised in Malaysia. Islamic Exchange Traded Funds, or Islamic ETFs have become increasingly popular among both institutional and retail investors globally. They have low management costs, high liquidity, relative safety and solid appreciation potential as a mid- to long-term investment. The main difference from conventional ETFs is that Islamic ETFs track only benchmark indices that consist of Shariah-compliant stocks or assets. An Islamic ETF is managed strictly under Shariah principles and overseen by an appointed Shariah committee. This naturally increases costs and results in higher fees compared to conventional ETFs. To tap the huge potential, Islamic ETFs need to be made cost-effective and get incentivised by governments to attract both institutional and retail investors. In the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries ETF is relatively new. In the GCC more promotion is needed to bring Islamic ETFs out of their niche.

Bahrains's Arcapita has acquired 75% interest in Mentor-based signage and lighting services firm MC Sign. The deal is worth more than $100 million. Atif A. Abdulmalik, Arcapita's CEO, said the company was well positioned to acquire market share in a highly fragmented industry that is dominated by locally-focused, sub-scale service providers. Arcapita's investment in MC Sign reflects the firm's global presence, with offices in Bahrain, Atlanta, London and Singapore. The investment firm has been active in the Middle East too. In October 2017, the firm partnered with Bahrain's sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat to acquire 90% stake in Abu Dhabi's NAS United Healthcare Services. This was preceded by another deal through which Arcapita acquired logistics assets worth $150 million in Dubai.

There are investment products such as ETFs and Mutual Funds which are designed to hold investments that are compatible with religious values for Christians, Catholics, and Muslims. The Amana Growth Fund has an expense ratio of 1.10%, an SEC yield of 0.45% and a minimum investment of $250. The Amana Income Fund has an SEC yield of 1.07%, an expense ratio of 1.13% and has a minimum investment of $250. It has $1.39B in assets. There is also the Azzad Wize Capital Fund which invests in sukuk and Islamic banking deposits. It has a minimum investment of $4000 and an expense ratio of 1.29%. It has a 30-day SEC yield of 1.14% and comparable total returns to short term credit bond ETFs such as the iShares 1-3 Year Credit Bond ETF.

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) launched a second 'Advanced & Autonomous Car' Equities Basket Note, following high investor demand for the first tranche. The Shariah-compliant note matures in one year and provides 100% capital protection. The product provides investors with exposure to a basket of five leading car manufacturers, including Daimler, SAP, Volkswagen, BMW and Tesla. The minimum investment for the note is US$30,000, with an option for early redemption after three months. In September 2017, the bank launched a similar equity basket note, which provided investors with exposure to a basket of nine companies operating across the car industry. On September 7, 2017, an ADIB Shariah-compliant diversified equity basket note capturing the performance of undervalued blue-chip yielded 5.45% upon its maturity.

#Saudi asset manager SEDCO Capital participated in the Islamic Finance Forum in London as an associate sponsor. Several panels and workshops were held focusing on trends in Islamic Finance and European markets. Panel topics included the role of European Stock Exchanges in facilitating Islamic capital raising, Islamic corporate financing activity in Europe and the impact of Brexit. Kamran Butt, Managing Director at SEDCO Capital, participated in the panel discussion entitled "Responsible Investing: The Shift towards Green Finance, ESG & Ethical Funds". Butt said SEDCO's Prudent Ethical Investing (PEI) strategy created optimal risk adjusted returns by integrating Shariah-compliant investment approach with ethical investing. PEI stresses the importance of due diligence and transparency. PEI investment products are getting increasingly popular. International investors can choose from over 14 SEDCO Sharia-compliant investment strategies in Luxembourg with total AUMs of $1.8 billion.

Rasmala Investment Bank Limited (RIBL) announced that assets under management in the Rasmala Trade Finance Fund have recently surpassed $100 million. The Fund specialises in providing short-term structured and/or asset-backed liquidity and has delivered 34 consecutive months of positive returns generating an annualised return of 4.5% for investors since inception. The Fund has seen interest from regional and international institutional investors as well as family offices, corporates, and high net worth investors. The Fund provides a regulated Shari'ah compliant investment vehicle to diversify international asset allocation. David Marshall, Head of Products at Rasmala, said the team worked hard on expanding the Fund’s asset base while matching inflows with investment opportunities. He promised to remain focused on tailoring products that offer clients real alternatives.

Qatar’s QInvest is set to reinforce its presence in Turkey. Head of Asset Management at QInvest, Dr Ataf Ahmed is seeing huge opportunities in various asset classes in Turkey. In 2016, QInvest acquired ERGO Portfoy, rebranded as QInvestPortfoy and became a leading asset management group in Turkey. The company is also seeing opportunities within Emerging Markets (EM) equities, despite the inherent volatility of the asset class. Inflation is coming in under control and there are a number of positive surprises in economic growth. There is also exposure to broader EM within some of the global funds and mandates, however this represents approximately 10% of total assets across all QInvest funds. In the GCC region businesses have adjusted to low oil prices. According to Ahmed, GCC nations are reinforcing their plans to diversify the economies, moving into sectors like finance, trade and tourism.

Dubai-based investment bank Arqaam Capital has announced the launch of two specialist fixed income funds located within Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). The high income fund will invest in emerging markets with a focus on the MENA region and will include a mixture of fixed and floating rate investments. The Islamic fixed income fund will invest in sukuk issued by sovereigns, quasi-sovereigns and corporates. Arqaam Capital said the funds are denominated in US dollars and pegged currencies and will target annual returns of 6 and 7%. The new funds will be co-managed by Abdul Kadir Hussain, head of fixed income asset management, and Zeina Rizk, director of fixed income asset management.

The #Malaysian Employees Provident Fund (EPF) is prepared to increase its investments in shariah-compliant private equity (PE) funds. Deputy CEO Datuk Mohamad Nasir Ab Latif said the pension fund has not met its full asset allocation target for its PE segment. He noted that the fund allocated 10% to infrastructure and real estate investment, while PE investment currently stood at 4%, adding that there was a shortage of shariah-compliant funds in the domestic and international markets. He said EPF would continue to invest in both shariah-compliant and conventional funds concurrently. For the second quarter ended June 30, 2017, EPF's shariah-compliant savings accounted for RM820.71 million out of RM11.51 billion of its total investment income, while RM10.69 billion was generated from its conventional savings.

#Qatar's QInvest has invested in OneOcean Port Vell in Barcelona, Spain. Originally built for the 1992 Olympic Games, the marina recently completed its transformation to a luxury facility, creating the ultimate destination for yachts up to 190m. QInvest will work with the city and port authorities in Barcelona to increase the profile of the marina by investing additional resources in the port infrastructure. OneOcean Port Vell is QInvest's second investment in Spain this year, having earlier invested into a Spanish real estate strategy focused on land developments in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Marbella. The objective is to acquire well-located land parcels across Spain and develop residential apartments for first home owners. QInvest’s revenues from all business lines were QR209mn, resulting in an operating profit of QR113mn and net profit of QR34.6mn in the first half of this year. The bank’s global assets stood at QR4.7bn at the end of June 30, 2017.

There is a growing number of faith-based exchange-traded funds that attempt to marry moneymaking with religious principles. In the spring, Silicon Valley-based Inspire Investing launched its Global Hope Large Cap and its Small/Mid Cap Impact ETFs, pledging to apply Christian values as a screen. Those products join Global X’s Catholic Values ETF, which applies the investment guidelines of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Inspire’s funds have garnered a respectable $80 million in their first six months and CEO Robert Netzly believes that biblically responsible investing will be the fastest-growing investment niche over the next decade. Investment giant Blackrock offers Islamic-oriented ETFs that are shariah-compliant. There are not any specifically Jewish-themed ETFs at the moment, but this can change easily. Juggling core values and full-on capitalism, however, remains a delicate business.

#Canadian Wealthsimple Financial introduced a Shariah-compliant portfolio to expand its product offerings in an increasingly crowded robo-adviser market. According to co-founder Michael Katchen, Wealthsimple’s Halal Investing portfolio is aimed at setting the company apart from its peers. He expects the portfolio’s interest to closely mirror the company’s socially responsible products. Wealthsimple’s fees are a flat 0.5% for the first $100,000 invested and drop to 0.4% on any additional investment. Privately held Wealthsimple has raised 100 million Canadian dollars ($79.6 million) over several funding rounds over the past three years led by a subsidiary of the Power Corporation of Canada. Katchen said he expects to tap another round of venture funding before seeking an initial public offering.

Sameer Nawaz has been appointed head of investment banking at Saudi Arabia’s Al Rajhi Capital. Nawaz will be responsible for building an investment banking team at the securities division of Al Rajhi Bank. Previously, he was co-head of investment banking at Saudi Fransi Capital. Usman Sikander, who was co-head of investment banking at Saudi Fransi Capital with Nawaz, will become head of investment banking. Banks are hiring in Riyadh in anticipation of a boom in fees as the government ramps up efforts to wean the economy off oil. Elyas Algaseer, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group's co-head said that the bank was looking to hire in Saudi Arabia in expectation that privatizations in the country could exceed $350 billion in about five years.

The Tenaga Nasional Bhd informed the stock exchange that it has issued RM2bil Islamic medium-term notes (sukuk wakalah). This is the first issuance under the sukuk programme of up to RM5bil in nominal value set up last month. The programme has a tenure of 50 years starting from the date of this first issue.
Tenaga Nasional Bhd told the Bursa Malaysia that based on its consolidated statement of financial position as at May 31, 2017, its consolidated gearing would then increase to 0.70 times from 0.66 times. Additionally the sukuk wakalah issuance would not have any impact on the earnings, earnings per share and net assets per share of the company for the current financial year.
Earlier this year, Tenaga Nasional Bhd had said the proceeds raised from the programme would be used to finance capital expenditure, investment, general corporate purposes, working capital requirements and/or refinance any existing financing facilities and to defray any fees and expenses of the sukuk programme.

Central Bank issued a notificaiton in May this year about mis-selling of investments. The UAE‘s largest Sharia-compliant lender, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, has welcomed efforts by the central bank to clamp down on unscrupulous sales of investment plans to UAE expats It said, the reputation of the industry as a whole had been damaged by dishonest brokers.
“More regulation is a good thing and we work very closely with the central bank” and other wealth management institutions who wish to improve their services, said Daffer Luqman of Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank. “At the end of the day the reputation of the business affects everybody. If an institution does a bad job of promoting or marketing a service it affects the whole industry so it’s very important that this business is regulated, that it’s regulated effectively and that everybody plays by the rules.”

Robo-advisers are seen as a more transparent, convenient and low-cost alternative to human financial advisers. However, these platforms have limited options when it comes to shariah-compliant investments. To solve this problem, Malaysian Farringdon Group has recently launched its new robo-adviser called Algebra. According to CEO Stuart Yeomans, the company’s Virtual Mutual Fund Technology (VMFT) allows robo-advisory services for shariah-compliant investments to be offered at a lower price. Algebra can offer a wider range of investments and asset classes than other robo-advisory platforms. It adopts a smart beta strategy, which uses algorithms to derive its active equity portfolio before blending with fixed-income ETFs or sukuk funds. The shariah-compliant strategy used by the platform has been approved by Kuala Lumpur-based shariah advisory firm Amanie Advisors.