IslamicFinance.de

The developer of the planned Muslim community center and mosque near ground zero hopes to finance the bulk of the $140 million project using instruments developed to allow many Muslim investors to comply with religious prohibitions on interest.
Most of that core group, Mr. Gamal,the developer, expects, would be non-Muslim neighborhood residents and commuters. Muslims from around the region would make up a larger but less frequently visiting group — what he calls the “dinner and a date” crowd — many of them choosing the cheapest $375 family membership for cultural programs.
In sukuk construction projects, the investors own the real estate asset, and the developers lease it back; the investors’ profit on the rent is analogous to the yield on a bond. Some Islamic scholars do not accept the system, but it is widely used in places like Malaysia and Dubai.

Indonesia's government will issue 2.364 trillion rupiah ($264.2 million) worth of sukuk in the fourth quarter of this year, a debt office official said on Tuesday.

Malaysia Debt Ventures Bhd, a venture capital firm owned by the Ministry of Finance, plans to issue about RM500 million of Islamic bonds in its third sukuk sale next year to fund investments, chief executive officer Md. Zubir Ansori Yahaya said in Kuala Lumpur.

In November 2007 Islamic finance, which until then had been soaring on the back of a bullish economy and a climate of more liberal interpretation, hit its first weak point.
Sheikh?Muhammad?Taqi Usmani, head of the religious board at the Accounting and Auditing Organisation for ­Islamic Financial Institutions - the body that sets standards for Islamic finance products - declared that around 85 per cent of the sukuk in issuance broke key principles of Islam and were not sharia-­compliant.
But it is coming back. Islamic finance as a whole, of course, never really went away. Its ups and downs merely mirrored those of conventional finance, with some exceptions - shortly after Lehman Brothers went bust investors fled conventional funds for the perceived haven of sharia-compliant structures and all things Middle Eastern. Large restructurings, such as that of Dubai World subsidiary Nakheel (see box) and Kuwait Investment Dar, characterised the market and new-money deals were few and far between.

Nigeria, Africa’s second-largest economy and home to 75 million Muslims, plans to sell its first Islamic debt within 12 months as part of a bid to become the continent’s center for Shariah-compliant financing.
The West African country is seeking to diversify the economy by developing its finance industry.
Issuance is rebounding after Dubai World, one of the emirates’ three main state-controlled holding companies.

Abu Dhabi Islamic banking is growing at a fast pace and its size globally is expected to reach $2.7 trillion (Dh9.9 trillion) by 2015. Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank announced the launch of its wealth management service that will cater to the needs of mass, affluent and high net worth customers.
Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank Wealth Management offers a range of investment solutions such as sukuk, equity, treasuries, commodities, mutual funds, real estate advisory, trust, private equity and other Sharia-compliant opportunities worldwide.

The perceived sustainability and attractiveness of Islamic finance as an alternative financial management model in a post global financial crisis continues to flourish in new regions and countries trying to change banking regulations and laws to facilitate the introduction of such institutions and products in their respective jurisdictions.
The latest region which is trying to open up to Islamic finance is East Africa, including Ethiopia, where local reports suggest that the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), the central bank, is in the process of finalizing a banking regulation and business directive that would allow the authorization of a bank operating under interest-free (Islamic finance) principles.
At the same time the government of Kenya is studying the possibility of issuing the country's debut sovereign sukuk issuance, while the First Community Bank (FCB), Kenya's second Islamic bank, has launched FCB Capital, which plans to issue a series of local currency sukuk plus other Islamic capital market products for a growing market segment.

Steuerliche Würdigung im nationalen und internationalen Kontext

Der Markt Islamic Finance wächst rasant und umfasst bereits heute ein erhebliches Anlagevolumen. Demgegenüber besteht ein großer Kapitalbedarf in der europäischen, speziell auch in der deutschen Realwirtschaft ebenso wie ein Bedarf an Investoren.

Bei der Umsetzung von Islamic-Finance-Vertragsmodellen kann die Besteuerung im Einzelfall eine ausschlaggebende Rolle spielen. Daher erläutert die Autorin in diesem Buch für ausgewählte schariakonforme Finanzierungs- und Anlageformen zunächst die Scharia-Rahmenbedingungen der jeweiligen Vertragsmodelle aus deutscher rechtlicher, ertragsteuerlicher und verkehrsteuerlicher Sicht. Die steuerlichen Fragestellungen werden anhand von Beispielen im grenzüberschreitenden Corporate Bereich im Schnittpunkt von deutschem internationalem Steuerrecht und ausländischem Steuerrecht der weiteren beteiligen Staaten verdeutlicht.

Inhalt

* Einleitung
* Grundzüge von Islamic-Finance-Vertragsmodellen
- eigenkapitalbasierte („Musharaka“ und „Mudaraba“),
- fremdkapitalbasierte („Murabaha“ und „Tawarruq“) sowie

ResearchGATE is the largest social network for academic research globally. Dedicated social profiles of researchers allow to enter academic careers, published articles in journals and books, announce fields of research for international exchange just to name a few of the features.

IslamicFinance.de took another effort to create a dedicated group and invite researchers globally to use this platform and foster research in Islamic finance. The last academic initiative taken was to sponsor and start a full fledged platform for the Islamic Finance WIKI, the online encyclopedia.

Researchers are invited to participate in these initiatives.

Please visit:
http://www.researchgate.net/group/Islamic_Finance/

Banks and companies in the Arabian Gulf may issue the most Islamic debt in three years in the fourth quarter as economic growth accelerates and Dubai’s companies reach agreements to restructure debt. The combination of declining yields in emerging markets and a successful restructuring of state-owned Dubai World’s debt may spur more sales, according to Exotix and Royal Capital PJSC.

Citigroup plans to arrange more sales of Islamic bonds, or sukuk, from Turkey after managing a $100 million issue for Kuveyt Turk Katilim Bankasi AS, an executive at the company said. Citigroup and Liquidity Management House, a unit of Kuwait Finance House KSC which is the owner of Kuveyt Turk, acted as arrangers in Kuveyt Turk’s sukuk sales, the first in Turkey after regulators allowed companies to offer Islamic bonds in April.

The first trade creditor has filed a lawsuit against Dubai World's Nakheel property developer unit with the special tribunal set up to handle disputes over its debt restructuring, which could further delay a settlement. The tribunal said the suit, filed in mid-August, was served by Dubai-based Construction Delivery Group (CDG). Legal experts have said that creditor claims against Dubai World or its subsidiaries with the tribunal could potentially cause the restructuring to come to a standstill until the matter is resolved in court. Under Nakheel's restructuring plan, trade creditors have been offered 40 per cent of what they are owed in cash and an Islamic bond (sukuk) in lieu of the rest.

Citigroup plans to arrange more sales of Islamic bonds, or sukuk, from Turkey. Citigroup is having talks with other potential sellers of Shariah-compliant debt in the country, said Hulusi Horozoglu, director of global Islamic banking at Citigroup, in an e-mailed response to questions. Turkey’s government is considering selling sukuk “in the future,” Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek said in an interview.

The following borrowers are expected to sell Islamic bonds:

TURKEY: Citigroup Inc. plans to arrange more sales of Islamic bonds from Turkey after managing a $100 million issue for Kuveyt Turk Katilim Bankasi AS, said Hulusi Horozoglu, director of global Islamic banking at Citigroup.

PAKISTAN: The South Asian country plans to sell sukuk maturing in a year or less in the domestic market by the end of this month, according to an e-mailed statement from Syed Wasimuddin, a spokesman for State Bank of Pakistan, the nation’s central bank.

CAGAMAS BHD.: Malaysia’s national mortgage company plans to sell more Islamic bonds this month following a sale in August under its 5 billion ringgit ($1.6 billion) sukuk program, the Business Times reported, citing an unidentified person familiar with the proposal.

INDONESIA: plans to sell 2 trillion rupiah ($224 million) of Islamic bonds by private placement this year, said Rahmat Waluyanto, a director at the Ministry of Finance.

Ethica Institute of Islamic Finance and Zawya today announced a partnership to jointly deliver online Islamic banking courses and certification. Ethica Institute's certification is chosen by more professionals and students than any other Islamic finance certificate in the world, and Zawya is widely regarded as the leading provider of business and investment intelligence in the Middle East. A partnership between Ethica and Zawya would bring unprecedented access to standardized Islamic finance training and certification to both companies' extensive community of high-end users. In the coming months the two companies intend to jointly launch a specialized Islamic finance certification focusing on Sukuk.

Seeking to diversify its financial industry after a banking crisis, oil-rich Kazakhstan is drawing on Arab and Malaysian investment in an effort to build an Islamic finance industry among its 13mn Muslims. Its success may depend on the fate of pioneer investors and the commitment of its secular government to clear the way for a long-awaited sovereign issue of sukuk, or Islamic bonds, which could prompt other issuers to follow. Al Hilal, owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, was the first bank to respond when Kazakhstan passed new laws last year to allow an Islamic finance industry. The bank opened its Kazakh offices in March 2010. Though modern Islamic finance began three decades ago, its major principles, such as a prohibition on paying interest, would have been familiar to Muslim traders on the medieval Silk Road through Kazakhstan and Central Asia. Investors, though, are cautious. The financial crisis humbled the once-proud Kazakh banking sector; international creditors were forced to write off billions of dollars of debt in a restructuring process that followed local bank defaults.

Pakistan’s government plans to sell Islamic bonds in the domestic market by the end of this month, according to the central bank’s spokesman. State Bank of Pakistan is seeking to sell Islamic bonds maturing in a year or less

Bank Muamalat Malaysia and Standard Chartered Saadiq Bhd have acted as joint principal advisers, lead arrangers and lead managers for Padiberas Nasional Bhd's sukuk.

Malaysia, the world’s largest market for sukuk, plans to improve its legal system to become an alternative location to the U.K. for resolving international Islamic finance disputes. The goal is to position Malaysian laws as the law of choice for Islamic finance transactions globally. Disputes about Shariah principles are a risk to the market for sukuk, bonds complying with Islam’s ban on payment of interest. Persian Gulf companies have traditionally based cross-border contracts on U.K. law to take advantage of the country’s developed legal system and neutrality, according to Unicorn Investment Bank BSC. The challenge will be to gain acceptance in the Middle East because of different religious interpretations in various jurisdictions. A group of scholars in Kuala Lumpur is helping to set up a committee to prepare the first global certification for Shariah experts said Aznan Hasan, the president of the oversight committee

Sudan plans to delay the sale of $300 million of Islamic bonds until next year, after originally planning the sale for 2008, as it waits for global markets to recover from the economic crisis. Sabir al-Hassan said that they are waiting for the right environment. The sale of the bonds, known as Sukuk, may take place this year if conditions improve. The country is sub-Saharan Africa’s third-biggest oil producer.