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DIFC-based investment bank Alpen Capital has advised Dubai Investment Park Development Company LLC (DIPDC) on its $300 million debut Sukuk offering. Alpen Capital also advised DIPDC on its Ratings ahead of the Sukuk offering. The landmark transaction is structured as a Wakala Sukuk and issued through a special purpose vehicle (DIP Sukuk Limited). The issue was oversubscribed 13 times. DIPDC was able to price the Sukuk with a yield of 4.291 per cent (equivalent to a spread of 265bps over five-year USD Mid-Swaps) on the back of an order book that peaked at over $4 billion. Al Hilal Bank, Citigroup, Dubai Islamic Bank PJSC and Emirates NBD Capital acted as Joint Lead Managers and Joint Bookrunners.

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank has reported a net profit of Dh1.45 billion for 2013, up 20.7 per cent compared to Dh1.20 billion in 2012. The profit for the fourth quarter of 2013 increased by 41.4 per cent to Dh343.3 million. The Board of Directors recommended the distribution of 30.66 per cent cash dividends and 26.87 per cent bonus shares for 2013. Total assets have passed an important milestone and are now Dh103.2 billion, increasing by 19.8 per cent in 2013. Moreover, ADIB maintained its position as one of the most liquid banks in the UAE. ADIB Securities increased net profit for 2013 by 416.6 per cent to Dh29.7 million. With regard to Burooj, the Group’s real estate investment subsidiary, there was a reduction of commitments by a net Dh775 million vs 2012.

Noor Takaful, the Islamic insurance arm of Noor Investment Group, announced on Tuesday that the company’s CEO Parvaiz Seddiqi has stepped down from his role. Seddiqi is the founder member of Noor Takaful. The company also announced that Andrew Greenwood has been named acting CEO. Noor Takaful offers general and family Islamic products to cater to individual and corporate customer segments.

Dar Al Takaful has announced today that it has opened a new managed investment account with Daman Investments.
According to Mr. Saleh Al Hashmi, Managing Director of Dar Al Takaful, Daman Investments is one of the most venerable companies in the MENA Investment Arena and this is the start of a mutually beneficial business relationship. Mr. Shehab Gargash, Managing Director of Daman Investments, said that Dar Al Takaful is a respected Islamic Insurance company and opening this new managed account demonstrates their confidence in his firm's abilities to manage money in the UAE economy. Dar Al Takaful’s account will be managed under a Shari’ah compliant investment mandate.

Dubai-based Noor Bank will consider a possible initial public offering of its shares in the medium term, although there is no current need for new capital at the bank. Besides, the bank has announced it was dropping the word “Islamic” from its title after a two-year study of its brand status and positioning. The new name is a major strategic move aimed at underlining its local and international growth ambitions, according to Hussain Al Qemzi, the bank’s chief executive. This rebranding is expected to help the IPO. The rebranding will not affect Noor’s status as a Sharia-compliant financial institution. Mr Al Qemzi said that the bank would continue to look at its traditional areas for expansion: Turkey, the GCC region, and South East Asia.

Nakheel plans to prepay in 2014 more than half of its bank debt of AED6.8 billion, originally due for repayment in September 2015. The company will pay AED2.35 billion in Q1 2014, and plans an additional prepayment of approximately AED1.65 billion in Q3 2014. Moreover, Nakheel plans to make additional payments of AED3 billion by Q3 2015. Other amounts will be paid ahead of the due dates. The trade creditor sukuk, due in August 2016, will be paid on time. The company says that a robust financial performance that has significantly exceeded its revised business plan, has led to improvements of approximately AED22 billion to date over the plan period. Over the past 28 months, since the successful completion of the financial restructuring, Nakheel has continued its focus on delivering the revised business plan and creating a long term sustainable business. Besides, Nakheel also launched new development projects to revive its core business activity of property development.

The Board of Directors of Dubai Islamic Bank approved to increase the foreign ownership limit (FOL) from the current level of 15% to 25%. The decision was taken to address the huge demand for DIB shares by large foreign institutional investors. Although a highly liquid scrip on the exchange with approximately 60% free float, the foreign ownership cap was restricting the large global institutional investors keen to participate in the organisation’s success. With the MSCI upgrade taking effect next year, the decision to raise the cap has opened doors for numerous global investors to take advantage of their emerging market allocations and invest in one of the top picks on the exchange. With the Board approval for FOL increase in place, the bank will now proceed to follow the required regulatory process to formalise this decision in due course.

The UAE is in the final stages of creating debt issuance and listing regulations that will help develop a domestic credit market and encourage the sale of Islamic bonds. The Securities and Commodities Authority, or SCA, has circulated draft rules that for the first time to treat sukuk and non-Shariah compliant debt separately. The regulator is seeking feedback from market participants by the end of the year and “hopes” to enact the regulations early in 2014. The UAE must develop local debt markets to help state-run and private companies find alternatives to bank loans because it is the only one in the six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council that doesn’t have a domestic, local-currency debt market.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, in his capacity as Ruler of Dubai, has issued Law No 13 of 2013 on the establishment of the "Dubai Islamic Economy Development Centre". He also issued Decree No 42 of 2013 to form the Centre's Board of Directors, to be chaired by Mohammed Abdullah Al Gergawi. The decree is effective from the date of issuance. The Centre will have legal personality and financial and administrative independence as well as the legal capacity necessary to direct all actions and behaviours to achieve the goals of the Centre. Promoting Dubai regionally and globally as a main centre for Shariah-compliant goods and services, building a database on Islamic economic activities and encouraging recourse to arbitration in related Islamic economic activities disputes are among the key objectives of the Centre.

Dubai Holding, a conglomerate owned by the emirate's ruler, and Kuwait's Al Fajer Re plan to launch a Emirates Retakafulfirm with $500m of authorised capital in January to tap unserved demand in retakaful. The new firm, Emirates Retakaful, will be set up in the Dubai International Financial Centre, said Fareed Lutfi, director of insurance services at Dubai Holding. There will be scope to add more investors to the firm, he added. Emirates Retakaful will focus on covering general takaful business, such as oil- and aviation-related risks, and later explore family takaful risk.

Power cables and wires manufacturer Ducab has taken a strategic initiative to convert its conventional metals hedging practices into Islamic structures. The ultimate objective of this initiative is to persuade global metal exchanges to adopt the product as one of the standard traded offerings. This new hedging opportunity was placed under the spotlight at the 2013 Global Islamic Economy Summit, which took place on 25 and 26 November, as Ducab seeks to promote the Sharia-compliant hedging to other major companies in the MENA region.

Dubai is in talks with Islamic endowments, or awqaf, in other countries to promote its drive for the industry to become more efficient and profit-oriented. Dubai wants to become a centre for modernising awqaf and coordinating their activities in order to make them more financially successful. The Emirate plans to establish an international body during the first half of next year that would handle cooperation with other emirates and countries. It would be managed jointly by members and include non-awqaf charities that operated in similar ways. In March, Dubai said it was launching the new asset management firm NoorAwqaf that would specialise in handling awqaf assets. With 10 million dirhams ($2.7 million) of paid-up capital, the new firm would offer services including due diligence, financial analysis and assisting awqaf to develop their strategic objectives.

Noor Islamic Bank (Noor) announced a waiver on all remittance charges for clients wishing to send money to relatives in the Philippines, in the wake of the Super Typhoon Haiyan. In addition, the Islamic bank has said that any of its corporate clients wishing to donate funds to the Philippines relief effort will have the processing charges waived. The decision to waive remittance and processing charges will remain in place until December 31, 2013. Individuals and organisations must have a Noor bank account to take advantage of the zero charges.

Emirates Islamic Bank has launched a four year Wakala investment option for customers, with an expected profit rate of 2.57 per cent per annum. Available on investment amounts ranging from AED 100,000 to AED 5 million, Emirates Islamic Bank’s latest product closely follows the launch of the three-year special Ramadan Wakala, introduced earlier this year. The four year Wakala investment option differs from conventional Wakala investments, with the profits being paid out on an annual basis to customers. Faisal Aqil, the bank's Deputy CEO - Consumer Wealth Management, said that customers are encouraged to develop a culture of saving through the launch of the bank's Sharia-compliant savings products.

Dubai-based GEMS Education has set initial pricing thoughts of an 11.75-12.00 per cent profit rate for its planned debut sale of hybrid Islamic bonds. The company, which employs about 11,000 staff and operates around 100 private schools across the Gulf region, has hired Morgan Stanley Inc, Credit Suisse and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) to arrange the sale. The sukuk sale will use a mudaraba structure and will be callable after five years. No details on the planned size of the offering was provided.

London has long been the default centre for international firms to issue sharia-compliant bonds, but it faces a mounting challenge from Dubai and Kuala Lumpur. The final result of the three cities' rivalry may not be known for years, but thousands of jobs and large amounts of direct investment in companies and real estate are likely to depend on the outcome. The most high-profile - and most cut-throat - area of competition between the three centres is arranging sukuk. Other areas of competition include Islamic insurance, known as takaful, and asset management. London has led in attracting sukuk issues by big international companies because of the massive size of its conventional financial markets and its globally respected legal system. However, its position looks weakest among the three centres from a long-term perspective because it is not located within a natural pool of sukuk issuers and European customers will remain a limited group.

The Dubai government plans to establish a centre that will develop standards for corporate governance based on Islamic values, guiding companies in both financial and non-financial activities. The centre is to be opened in the second quarter of next year. The standards will not be compulsory for firms but the centre will issue sharia-compliance certificates to companies and banks meeting them. The standards will cover issues such as corporate transparency and disclosure. However, certificates will not be issued for individual products.

Emad Mansour, a veteran Gulf Arab banker, is planning to set up an investment bank in Dubai’s tax-free financial zone. Mansour, who has about 20 years of investment banking experience in the region, was most recently the chief executive of Doha-based Qatar First Bank (QFB). The executive will file an application to the regulator of Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC), and aims to launch the business in the first half of 2014. His firm will initially focus on private equity transactions and then will move on to offering M&A, equity and debt capital markets advisory services before starting asset management operations. Other former investment bankers from the region have also set up specialist boutiques betting on a continued upturn in activity.

According to estimates by EY’s Global Islamic Banking Center, the pent up global demand for Islamic pension funds is currently between $160 bn and $190 bn. At present, most of these funds are parked under conventional sovereign pension funds due to lack of investing options. Since greenfield operations would take too long to satiate market demand, a more practical approach is the partial transformation of existing pension funds to carve out Shari’a compliant tranches. The transformation will need to be carefully planned to choose the right business model and operational framework. The choice of business model will determine the governance structure, the complexity of financial reporting, tax implications, and go-to-market timeframes.

Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) Group has reported a net profit of Dh1.2 billion for the first nine months of the year, up 33.5 per cent compared with Dh899 million reported in the same period in 2012. The bank attributes a 33.5 per cent increase in net profits to increased core business and lower provision requirements due to improved asset quality and overall improvement in the economic environment in the UAE. Net operating revenue of the bank at the end of the third quarter was Dh3.2 billion, up 5.6 per cent from Dh3 billion in the first nine months of 2012. Operating profit before impairments was up 7 per cent at Dh1.95 billion from Dh1.83 billion in the same period in 2012. The bank made provisions of Dh751 million in the first nine months of the year compared with D922 million in the same period in 2012. DIB continues to manage asset quality and non-performing assets by cautious lending and conservative provisioning approach.