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Indonesia began gauging interest this week for its maiden global sukuk that is expected to raise up to USD 650 mn. Sri Mulyani Indrawati, finance minister, confirmed that the offering circular for the Sukuk Al Ijara reported John Aglionby in the Financial Times. Barclays Capital, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank are marketing the Sukuk. t has been rated Ba3 from Moody’s Investors Service, BB- from Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services and BB from Fitch Ratings.

Yields on traditional government bonds are coming down: The government’s 10-year paper is now offering 11.99%, down from above 14 % in February. Indonesia’s credit default swap spreads over US Treasuries have tightened to 491 bps, down from well over 1,000 bps late last year.

Liquidity Management House, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kuwait Finance has succeeded in making a combined global 1-year Murabaha finance deal about USD 115 million for KFH-Turkey, after attracting 7 global and regional banks: Halk Bank-Turkey, Islamic Development Bank, Citibank, Garanti Bank International-Holland, Gatehouse Bank-UK, NBK International PLC, Standard Chartered Bank.

KFH-Turkey Chief Executive Officer is Ufuk Iwan.

Saeed Azhar reported on Reuters on 18th March, that Asia-focused Standard Chartered Bank has applied for a license to set up a separate Islamic banking unit in Malaysia, aiming to capture growth in a business that has escaped global credit turmoil.

Standard Chartered had $1.4 billion (699 million pounds) of Islamic banking assets in Malaysia at the end of 2007, more than double the year ago period, he said.

HSBC and Singapore's third-biggest lender, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp , have already received regulatory approval to set up Islamic banking units in Malaysia.

Source: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20080318/tbs-uk-standard-chartered-malaysi...