IslamicFinance.de

Until recently the issuance of Islamic bonds, or sukuk, was confined to the Muslim world. But now a number of international borrowers are tapping the markets, including Nomura Holdings in Japan and Europe's first corporate borrower, International Innovative Technologies.
The ratings agencies Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s say they expect to see a rise in the number of sukuk issues by new players over the next 12 months, including issues by borrowers in Singapore, Australia, Luxembourg, Thailand, Hong Kong, France and Russia.
While the Islamic Financial Service Board and the accounting and auditing organization have defined standards for sukuk, defaults over the past year have shown that new guidelines must be set as problems arise, particularly as sukuk start to generate global attention.

Islamic private equity funds in the Persian Gulf plan to take advantage of lower asset prices after the property market in Dubai tumbled as much as 50 percent from its peak in 2008.
Middle East and North Africa investment groups have about $10 billion available after raising a record $5.4 billion in 2008 that they haven’t been able to spend, Gulf Venture Capital Association said in a July 20 statement. Mid-sized businesses in the Gulf may need as much as $1 billion from investors, Jalil said. The Bloomberg GCC 200 Index of regional stocks has declined 26 percent since the end of September 2008 after credit markets collapsed.

Demand for Islamic bonds from the Middle East will return to “pre-crisis” levels by the end of the third quarter as companies restructure debt and higher yields lure investors, according to Citigroup Inc.
Shariah-compliant bond sales from the Persian Gulf are rising after Dubai World, the state-owned holding company, reached an agreement with 99 percent of its creditors in September to change terms on $24.9 billion of debt. Economic growth in the Middle East and North Africa will accelerate to 5 percent in 2011 from 3.8 percent this year and 1.1 percent in 2009.

The chief executive of the Association of Consultancy and Engineering (ACE) has warned companies to write off “sukuk” bonds from indebted Dubai developer Nakheel.
Nakheel is finalising a plan to pay creditors 40% in cash up front, and 60% in sukuk bonds, which are redeemable in five years and pay a return of 10% a year.
Nakheel chief executive Chris O’Donnell told conference delegates, many of whom are still owed money, that the developer would reach an agreement on the plan with creditors before the end of the year, after which the sukuk would be issued.

Agha & Co (the Firm), a Shariah compliant legal consultancy established by Oliver Ali Agha, commenced operation in Dubai in May 2010 and is scheduled to have a formal office inauguration on October 25, 2010. Previously, Agha and Dr. Saeed Mohammed Al-Shamsi established Agha & Shamsi, an affiliated firm, in Abu Dhabi. The Firm and its affiliate are said to be the first Shariah compliant legal consultancies established globally.
Agha & Co’s strategic position in the UAE, fast becoming a major commercial hub for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), includes a network of affiliation arrangements with leading law firms both internationally.
Agha & Co’s partners have previously lead practice areas at top Am Law 50 and top tier English firms, and are well-respected in the fields of Islamic Finance, Islamic Law, Corporate (including cross-border M&A), Projects, Project Finance, Energy, Public-Private Placements (PPPs), Commercial Transactions, Capital Markets, Islamic Funds & Private Equity, Restructuring, Insurance (Takaful), Arbitration and Dispute Resolution.

Saudi firms may launch 10 Islamic bonds, or sukuk, in 2011, more than double their number this year, but they will be dominated by private placements.
Key factors that will spur demand for Saudi sukuk issues will be a low interest rate environment in Saudi and Dubai World's restructuring accord with 99 percent of its bank lenders as well as Dubai's successful $1.25bn conventional bond issue in late September.
Saudi Arabia has had four sukuk issues this year so far, Nisar said, but declined to comment on the expected size of issues and only cited Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and an Aramco-Total joint-venture as being among the prospective issuers.
The interest rate environment in Saudi Arabia -- the main repo interest rate stands at two percent -- might seem discouraging for prospective sukuk buyers.

Last year, the emirate issued another $400m worth of sukuk. The government of Dubai in September launched its first sovereign bond issue since a debt crisis.

International insurers seeking a bigger share of the potentially lucrative Gulf market need to adapt quickly to regulatory changes and tap into growth areas like Islamic finance or risk being muscled out of consolidation.
With a penetration rate of around 1 percent of gross domestic product, the overall Middle Eastern insurance sector lags mature markets but its huge growth potential has already attracted global heavyweights such as AXA and Allianz.
However, the sector’s regulatory framework is transforming rapidly and some multinationals remain cautious in developing their Islamic product offering, giving domestic competitors such as Abu Dhabi National Insurance Company, Saudi’s Tawuniya and Qatar Insurance Company the chance to build a dominant position.
Within insurance, the life segment and takaful in particular holds the biggest potential in the region. Premium income in life insurance in Saudi Arabia, for example, soared 61 percent last year, boosted by strong demand for sharia-compliant products, while non-life grew 25 percent according to Swiss Re’s “World insurance in 2009” report.

International insurers seeking a bigger share of the potentially lucrative Gulf market need to adapt quickly to regulatory changes and tap into growth areas like Islamic finance or risk being muscled out of consolidation.
The overall Middle Eastern insurance sector lags mature markets but its enormous growth potential has already attracted global heavyweights such as AXA and Allianz.
However, the sector's regulatory framework is transforming rapidly and some multinationals remain cautious in developing their Islamic product offering, giving domestic competitors such as Abu Dhabi National Insurance Company, Saudi's Tawuniya and Qatar Insurance Company the chance to build a dominant position.
Foreign insurers have discovered the region in recent years, lured by its large population and the untapped potential, but with 180 firms jostling for space in the market, they need to get their acts together.

HSBC Holdings Plc, the second-largest underwriter of Islamic bonds, plans to start its first Shariah- compliant exchange traded funds in the Persian Gulf, a region that is struggling to lure international investors.
ETFs may help local markets attract some of the $49.4 billion that EPFR Global says poured into emerging market stock funds this year. Restrictions on foreign participation in Gulf markets range from bans to caps on ownership. Investors have sidestepped most countries in the Middle East and North Africa during a recent surge in capital inflows to emerging markets because of debt restructurings.
The funds will give overseas investors greater access to the region’s markets, Razi Fakih, deputy chief executive officer of HSBC’s Islamic unit in Dubai, said in a telephone interview Oct. 5. National Bank of Abu Dhabi PJSC started the Gulf’s first non-Shariah compliant ETF in March, followed by Falcom Financial Services’ Islamic fund in Saudi Arabia that month.

Award-winning Shariah product developer and advisor, Shariah Capital, announced today that Shaykh Yusuf Talal DeLorenzo, internationally-renowned Shariah scholar, Chief Shariah Officer and Board Member of Shariah Capital, has relocated to the Dubai office in order to lead the Company's growing Gulf initiatives.
In addition to assuming responsibilities for Shariah Capital's Dubai's office, Shaykh Yusuf has been named the General Manager of Dubai Shariah Asset Management (DSAM), Shariah Capital's joint venture company with the Dubai government's Dubai Commodity Asset Management (DCAM), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre.

Fozia Amanulla has grown accustomed to the pressures of negotiating multi-million-ringgit deals during her career in Islamic finance.
At a meeting with a client in Saudi Arabia, where men and women are commonly segregated in public life, she was the only woman in the building -- a fact reinforced by the absence of any toilets for women.
Fozia, one of the first women to lead an Islamic bank in Malaysia, has had no shortage of reminders that her industry -- in which investments are made according to Islamic principles -- is a male-dominated one.
But the number of female faces is multiplying.
Jamelah was appointed managing director of RHB Islamic Bank in Malaysia in 2007 and is believed to have been the first woman in the world to head an Islamic bank.
Linda Eagle, president of the Edcomm Group Banker's Academy, a consulting firm based in New York, said that while branches for women only had existed in Saudi Arabia for decades, such branches had opened in Dubai and Iraq in recent years.

Emirates Islamic Bank is in talks to acquire Dubai Bank and possibly Islamic mortgage lender, Amlak, Arabic Al-Ittihad has reported, citing unnamed sources. The move is in line with Dubai's efforts to integrate small and medium-sized banks into larger more competitive banking entities. Talks are in the initial stages for the acquisitions.

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.

Australian investment manager Hyperion Asset Management has launched an Islamic equity fund that will initially target Middle East investors seeking to benefit from Australia's economic growth potential.
Hyperion uses a proprietary process to manage a high-conviction portfolio made up of a limited set of stocks that meet strict selection criteria, for Shariah compliance and other business attributes, the company said in a statement.

Dubai aims to cash in on strong demand for high-yielding emerging market debt with its first foray since the Dubai World restructuring was announced.
Analysts said the emirate's dollar bond issue, weeks after its flagship conglomerate clinched a debt restructuring deal, was timed to take advantage of more favourable market conditions than at any time since the Dubai crisis broke.
Investor hunger for decent yields, particularly in emerging markets, may help make Dubai's return a success. The overall interest in this bond and potential oversubscription may boost market sentiment.

Property developer Nakheel NAKHD.UL plans to issue a 6 billion dirham Islamic bond as part of its debt repayment plan as it restarts several key projects. Under Nakheel's restructuring plan, trade creditors have been offered 40 percent of what they are owed in cash and the remaining 60 percent through a sukuk Islamic bond.
Dubai contractor Arabtec's chief financial officer Ziad Makhzoumi said Nakheel had applied for listing on Nasdaq Dubai. Nakheel, the property arm of state-owned conglomerate Dubai World and undergoing parallel negotiations with its creditors, has yet to secure backing for its plan.
The developer expects to complete its debt restructuring by the end of the year.

The emirate of Dubai is named after the daba, a desert locust that eats everything in its path.
For three decades, Dubai gorged first on oil, then on credit. Swarms of expatriates -- reportedly as many as a thousand a week -- came to the feast.
But with the global credit crunch of 2008, the consumption came to a gut-sickening halt. Dubai was revealed -- it really is a city built on sand.
Thousands of skilled professionals made their way north to the shores of the Arabian Gulf in the expectation of long-term or permanent work. They eventually formed one of the largest expat communities in the emirate.
The classifieds in The Sunday Times and other South African newspapers heaved with Dubai-based job vacancies, and local companies such as Group Five and Murray & Roberts cashed in on major construction contracts.

Dubai Islamic Bank has become the majority shareholder in Tamweel, taking management control; bank's liquidity 'to positively impact' Tamweel's business. The transaction marks an important milestone for the bank and the UAE property market”, said His Excellency Mohammed Ibrahim Al Shaibani, Director-General of His Highness The Ruler’s Court of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Islamic Bank.
“Dubai Islamic Bank has always been committed to the growth and prosperity of Dubai and the UAE, and we hope that this landmark deal will have a positive impact not only for the real estate sector but the UAE’s overall economic environment,” he added.

Swiss private bank Lombard Odier aims to more than double its business stemming from the Middle East and is considering local partnerships to that end, a senior executive said. Lombard Odier has had ties to the oil-rich region since the 1970s but only opened a representative office in Dubai in 2007. Until recently, it was less aggressive than some of its competitors such as Credit Suisse and Julius Baer in targeting the region’s wealthy individuals.