IslamicFinance.de

HSBC decied to exit the get out of the Shariah-compliant business in the U.K., the UAE, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Singabpor and Mauritius due to high local competition and relatively small market size where there is not sufficient scale to be economic.

See also under: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-04/hsbc-ceases-selling-retail-shar...

Qatari-based Barwa Bank considers an initial public offering on the Doha stock exchange. The IPO adviser is QInvest, a local investment bank controlled by Qatar Islamic Bank.

See more under: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/01/us-idUSBRE8900A420121001

Safa Investment Services is going to launch world's first Islamic global asset management company due to growing demand from wealthy Muslim investors that are seeking a dedicated asset manager to look at their investments.

See more under: http://www.theislamicglobe.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article...

On Tuesday Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) announcedthe launch of its new investment product, Al Islami Aurum+ 1 Dirham Certificate. It is an innovative investment product providing strategic exposure to the commodity markets while, at the same time, assuring a high level of capital protection. The Certificate is developed by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). Its aim is to generate returns in any market environment by the means of taking exposure and switching between oil and gold.

More on: http://gulfnews.com/business/banking/dib-announces-new-investment-produc...

After Oman allowed sharia-compliant lending last year, new Islamic banks are bolstering their balance sheets in order to challenge the sultanate's larger conventional lenders. Al Izz Islamic bank recently enabled subscription for its initial public offering of 40 per cent of the lender and reports strong interest. In addition, in June 2012 Bank Nizwa attracted 681m rials ($1.77bn) of bids in a successful share sale, which exceeds the necessary amount 11 times. However, competition is not to be underestimated.

More on: http://www.zawya.com/story/Markets_watch_new_Oman_banks_flex_muscles-ftc...

Since Ridge Islamic Capital wants to be able to offer a full range of sharia-compliant financial services in Egypt, it is looking for a local brokerage to buy. Such an initiative would be a part of its expansion plan. The company's intentions are to start providing sharia-compliant brokerage services during the last three months of 2012. The brokerage they are looking for should have a solid reputation and a track record. Potential candidates and deal size have not been made known so far.

More on: http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/09/26/egypt-islamic-brokerage-idINL5E...

A new guide to responsible investing in 10 major commodities sectors has been introduced by the Worldwide Wildlife Fund (WWF). The guide was launched at the Global AgInvesting Asia conference, where hundreds of allocators, fund managers, and industry executives gathered to discuss the burgeoning asset class of agriculture and other related topics. As a field guide, The 2050 Criteria adresses mainstream investors such as banks, investors, and financial analysts. Its goal is to help them mitigate the primary sources of environmental and social risk for investors in these sectors.

More on: http://www.bikyamasr.com/78403/wwf-delivers-guidelines-for-responsible-c...

GFH Capital discusses the takeover of the English football club Leeds United and has considerably advanced in its negotiations. Even though a football club is not typical for a bank's business, GFH Capital has discussed logistic and other issues at length and it is possible for the investment operation to be finalized by the end of the year.

More on: http://www.ameinfo.com/gfh-capital-talks-takeover-leeds-united-312875

Egyptian company Ridge Islamic Capital has announced to have $100 million which it plans to use for raising its capital and investing in funds over the following two years. Thus, it shall take advantage of the growing Islamic financial market. After Dubai-based Ridge Solutions International Holdings, the company for regional investment which provided the money for Ridge Islamic Capital, acquired Egyptian investment banking and asset management firm El Rashad, Ridge Islamic Capital was launched on Wednesday. Even though El Rashad uses conventional financial operations, Ridge will convert its assets in sharia compliant ones over a period of about two years. Future investments are all to be subject to Islamic principles.

More on: http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE88J00J20120920

Al Izz Islamic Bank plans to launch an initial public share offer (IPO) for 40 percent of the bank. the bank has set a goal to raise 40 million rials ($104 million) in this way. The offer will be opened on September 22 and will run for one month. Shares in Al Izz's offering will be priced at 0.1 rials each. Both local and foreign investors can make use of the shares with the condition that foreign investors are only allowed to have up to 70 percent of the offering.

The private equity firm Foursan Group has invested in in Jordan Dubai Islamic Bank (JDIB) and thus became the bank's second largest shareholder. The investment was completed through Foursan Capital Partners I. The goal of this transaction is a benefit from the rapidly growing Islamic banking sector as well as from JDIB's overall positive future growth prospects.

A report by Standard and Poor says that Islamic financing could support Indonesia to fulfill its infrastructure plans. Islamic financing would be able to bridge gaps in funding major infrastructure development projects. The same strategy was used by Malaysia. The situation in Indonesia is explained by the country's large needs to develop the infrastructure, the willingness of the government to attract private capital to fund these investments, and the increasing demand for investable assets of a growing domestic Islamic finance market.

According to a statement by Fitch Ratings, Indonesia's consumer finance will probably see an improvement in the underwriting quality and regulatory consistency. The precondition is that Bank Indonesia harmonises prudential rules for sharia-compliant products with the ones for mainstream consumer loan products. Applying tougher loan to value (LTV) regulations to sharia products would make the competition with non-sharia products even. Moreover, asset quality diverging within the consumer finance sector would be prevented.

Two Islamic Finance institutions, QIB and QIIB, have agreed to financing package for the Qatar Gas Transport Company. The joint arrangement is a big step in enhancing co-operation between both financial institutions and shall cover the increasingly growing market demand for Sharia'-compliant financial solutions.

Dr. Natalie Schoon became a new member of the Board of Directors at Noriba Investing - the world's first online Halal Investing broker. Mrs. Schoon belongs to the Islamic Finance industry's most capable practitioners, due to her vast experience in various board leadershiop roles with some of the largest brands in the world.

Bahrain based Tadhamon Capital B.S.C. and London based Apache Capital Partners, both investment companies, have completed the acquisition of Central London student accommodation development - Paris Gardens. The development itself was planned to be finished in September 2013. The property in the London Borough of Southwark will provide student accommodation of 253 beds.

The world’s third-largest asset-management company - Franklin Templeton Investments is starting its first Islamic funds. Following the steps of companies like BNP Paribas, Templeton will start three sukuk and stock investment vehicles in Luxembourg in the next couple of months. Thus, they aim to win business in the Muslim world.

Islamic exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are having serious difficulty attracting new investment while Western investors, on the other hand, move into conventional ETFs. This contrast is said to be caused by the Gulf's investment culture and the principles choice of financial products by institutions. Despite expected growth in Islamic ETFs due to higher interest in financial products like sukuk, amounts of fresh money committed to Islamic ETFs have hardly risen or have even stopped.

According to a report from Philanthropy Management magazine, small and mid-sized philanthropies increasingly decide on a single outscourced chief investment officer (CIO). However, it os often discussed on an industry level what influence and liability such a CIO should have. There are differences between industry investors which is why some industry aggreement is sought in regard of the best way to apply this kind of strategy and regarding discretion over investment decisions.

In a sukuk auction which took place on Tuesday, Indonesia as able to raise 460 billion rupiah ($48.65 million). Accourding to the debt office, the price was below the goal of 500 billion rupiah. The sukuk was a 25-year project-based bond at a weighted average yield of 6.69 percent. There were no winning bids for the rest of the sukuks in the auction.