IslamicFinance.de

Jordan Investment Commission (JIC) President Thabet Al Wir highlighted the Jordanian experiments in Islamic banking and halal food as a gate for cooperation with Germany to support the Kingdom's investment and economic environment. At a meeting with a German delegation representing the Federation of German Industries (BDI) and the German Federal Ministry of Finance, Wir described the Jordanian expertise in Islamic banking as top at the regional and international levels. The Kingdom is also among the first countries to accredit the Islamic banking system, he said. The presence of many Muslim communities in Germany provides a chance for the country to benefit from the Islamic system in its banking sector, the JIC president added.

Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Berhad is marketing five-year US dollar sukuk in the US Treasuries plus 190bp area. CIMB, DBS and Standard Chartered are lead managers for the deal that is expected to price today. The Reg S senior unsecured bonds will list in Malaysia and Singapore under English and Malaysian law. The sukuk will be issued through Danga Capital Berhad, a special purpose vehicle, with the SWF acting as obligor. They will be issued off a multi-currency Islamic securities issuance programme.

A Saudi billionaire has donated two-thirds of his wealth to charity. Forbes Magazine estimates the wealth of Saudi business tycoon Shaikh Suleiman bin Abdulaziz Al Rajhi at $7.7 billion. Al Rajhi has worked as a porter, cleaner, cook, café servant and office boy in a bank. Forbes magazine has ranked him as the Arab world's fifth richest man. He is the founder of Al-Rajhi Bank, the largest Islamic bank in the world, and one of the largest companies in Saudi Arabia.

Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) could use future sukuk issues to back a potential acquisition, its chairman Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani said, after shareholders approved increasing the amount it could raise from issuing Islamic bonds. The Gulf state's largest sharia-compliant lender won approval at its annual general meeting to double its sukuk programme to $3 billion, as well as retaining the mandate to issue 3 billion riyals ($824 million) to enhance core capital. QIB was fine with its capital reserves at present, its chairman said as the bank had a total capital adequacy ratio of 14.1 percent at the end of December, above a minimum requirement of 12.5 percent.

Islamic Development Bank (IDB) will start roadshows from Sunday for a potential dollar-denominated sukuk issue for the Jeddah-based supranational institution, a document from lead arrangers showed. The AAA-rated IDB has picked Boubyan Bank, CIMB, Emirates NBD Capital, Gulf International Bank, JP Morgan, Natixis and Standard Chartered Bank to arrange the transaction, the document showed. Investor meetings will start on Sunday in Riyadh before moving to Kuala Lampur on Tuesday and concluding in the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday.

The Shariah compliant models for financing the purchase of a home are several. However, the model best suited for use in the United States, given the legal and regulatory restraints imposed by the government for the protection of the consumer, is the equity-sharing model in which the home buyer aligns with a partner, such that both parties to the purchase provide cash for the outright purchase of the house. The partnership business model employed by Guidance Residential in the United States was derived from the same models described by the classical jurists in their works of fiqh. In developing its home finance program, Guidance Residential turned to a number of experts.

Bahrain-based Al Baraka Banking Group B.S.C (ABG) announced that its total operating income reached one billion dollars in 2015 for the first time since the start of the Group activities 12 years ago due to continued growth in income-generated business at all the Group units, while the net income for the year reached US$ 286 million in 2015, an increase of 4% on the net income achieved in 2014. Similarly, balance sheet items witnessed moderate increases as total assets increased by 5%, total finance and investments by 4%, customer accounts by 2% while total equity increased by 1% as at the end of December 2015 in comparison with the end of December 2014.

Al Baraka Bank Egypt, part of Bahrain's Al Baraka Group (ABG), is planning to pump one billion Egyptian pounds (US$127.7 million) to support Egyptian SMEs, its chairman Ashraf El-Ghamrawy said. The investments, with a five percent interest rate, are in favour of the central bank's initiative to advocate small and medium-sized enterprises. Earlier, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said the banking sector would inject 200 billion Egyptian pounds ($25 billion) to support small and medium businesses. Within this year, Al Baraka Bank Egypt plans to sign a new partnership worth 200 million pounds with the Social Fund for Development (SFD) to finance small and medium businesses led by the Islamic Development Bank (IDB).

The General Council for Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions (CIBAFI) tackles the profound structural problems in the Islamic Micro and Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (MSME) finance industry. The recent CIBAFI Global Islamic Bankers Survey from 83 Heads of Islamic banks in 35 countries revealed that MSME finance serves as the second key driver of sustainable growth of Islamic banks. Nonetheless, expanding this business line depends on the development of external factors of this market segment, as well as on how Islamic financial institutions can enhance their technical infrastructures in serving MSMEs. CIBAFI has therefore started the initiative to organize a series of Roundtable Meetings on the topic.

Visa Incorporated recently announced partnerships with two organizations to promote financial inclusion in China: the China Foundation for Development of Financial Education (CFDFE), which is affiliated with China’s central bank and seeks to alleviate poverty, and the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA), a government-backed organization focusing on emergency relief. Visa will collaborate with CFDFE to build the “China Financial Inclusion and Education (Jinhui Project) International Demonstration Zone” to facilitate financial education and capacity building. In partnership with CFPA, Visa will launch a mobile phone-based program in Inner Mongolia to educate farmers in eight counties and to promote Internet-based financial services.

Fuel subsidy reforms by Gulf Arab states will help reduce pressure on budgets, but are not enough to offset deficits resulting from low oil prices, ratings agency Moody's said. Savings from increased fuel prices in the six Gulf nations will average 0.5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), around $7 billion, this year against an estimated deficit of 12.4 per cent of GDP, it indicated. Moody's forecast that the price of oil will average $33 a barrel in 2016, way below its price of around $110 a barrel before it began to decline in mid-2014. It estimated the price to be $38 a barrel next year. Moody's expects GCC states to take other fiscal measures such as raising corporate taxes and introducing value-added taxes in the face of a long period of low oil revenues.

RAWABI Vallianz Offshore Services (RVOS), an equally-owned joint venture between Rawabi Holding and Vallianz Holdings Limited, has appointed Alinma Investment Co., Saudi Fransi Capital, Saudi Hollandi Capital and GIB Capital LLC as Joint Lead Managers and Book-Runners for its first issuance of a SR1 billion Shariah - compliant sukuk. The sukuk were sold through a private placement to sophisticated investors in full and are to be used to partially finance the marine assets of RVOS over a period of five years. Rawabi Holding provides a range of products and services in the fields of oil and gas, petrochemicals, engineering and construction, power and manufacturing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. Vallianz Holdings Limited is a provider of offshore support vessels and integrated marine solutions to the oil and gas industry.

As part of World Economic Forum’s journey through the Middle East, ‘The Silk Road: Past, Present, Future’ team spoke to six of the region’s most influential businesswomen for their tips on getting to the top. Dr Raja Easa al Gurg is the Managing Director of Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group. She says obstacles are always a stepping stone to success. Shaikha Al-Bahar is the Deputy Group CEO of the National Bank of Kuwait. Dedication and professionalism, passion, hard working 24/7 and innovation are key in climbing the ladder to the top, according to her. Maha al Ghunaim, Vice Chair and Group CEO of Global Investment House, says we need to remove that phobia about women getting involved with numbers, which comes from education.

Islamic banks in the UAE have proved that they are better equipped to deal with a difficult operating environment than their conventional peers, with all leading institutions reporting strong growth in assets, profits and asset quality in 2015. Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), the largest Islamic bank in the UAE by total assets, reported a group net profit of Dh3.83 billion, up 37 per cent compared Dh2.8 billion in 2014. Total income increased to Dh7.54 billion, up 21 per cent compared with Dh6.23 billion for 2014. Net revenue increased to Dh6.48 billion, up 19 per cent compared with Dh5.43 billion for the year 2014. Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank’s (ADIB) full-year net profit stood at Dh1.93 billion in 2015, growing 10.5 per cent on the previous year.

Islamic banks in the UAE delivered strong shareholder returns last year as they reported strong earnings and better asset quality. Dubai Islamic Bank’s (DIB) earnings per share increased to Dh0.81 in 2015 from Dh0.61 in 2014, return on assets increased by 40 basis points to 2.80 per cent in 2015 from 2.4 per cent in 2014. Return on equity increased by 190 basis points to 19.8 per cent in 2015 from 17.9 per cent in 2014. For the year, the DIB board has recommended distribution of a cash dividend of 45 per cent. Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank’s (ADIB) maintained strong liquidity position while simultaneously continuing to manage its cost of funding.

Guyana, which joined the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in 1998, but not the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), an organ of that group, will finally join the bank by mid-year according to Finance Minister Winston Jordan. Since Guyana is now a low-middle-income country, it cannot easily access concessionary loans from traditional lenders, and this is one reason why Guyana will join 56 other countries that are members of the IsDB. The IsDB now wants to market its product in the Caribbean and, with Guyana now poised to join, the bank will open an office in a Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country.

Azerbaijan could see the launch of its first standalone Islamic bank as early as next year as the government makes progress to introduce legislation to facilitate interest-free finance. Azerbaijan, alongside Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, are among several central Asian countries creating a more welcoming framework for sharia-compliant banking with the help of the Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank. A working group of cabinet minsters and the IDB is making progress on the legislation, which would allow the proposed Islamic bank to launch next year, said Behnam Gurbanzada, chief executive of Islamic finance consultancy BEST Solutions.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has revised its outlook on Qatari insurer Al Khaleej Takaful Group (KTG) to positive from stable. At the same time, the ratings agency affirmed its 'BBB' long-term insurer financial strength and counterparty credit ratings on KTG. The outlook revision follows a significant improvement of KTG's operating performance in 2015, which has strengthened the company's competitive position, said S&P. Last year, KTG reported a stronger combined (loss and expense) ratio of 86 per cent compared with 97 per cent in 2014. This was mainly thanks to organizational changes during 2014 and 2015 that helped optimize the use of resources and enhanced claims management.

Malaysia’s Maybank Islamic Bhd says the investment account (IA) business is set to be a game changer for the group in its effort to boost earnings growth amid the subdued banking landscape. The Islamic lender, which has total assets worth close to RM147bil, will focus on its new mudarabah (profit-sharing) investment fund launched in July last year in view of the Islamic Financial Services Act (IFSA) 2013. Describing the IA business as “the evolution of the next phase of growth”, Maybank Islamic chief executive officer Datuk Muzaffar Hisham said that demand for the IA business has shot up significantly, as the value of its mudarabah fund rose to RM18bil in the last six months of 2015.

S&P dropped a bombshell on Thursday, downgrading the sovereign credit rating for Saudi Arabia by two notches. The ratings agency also slashed credit rating for Brazil, Kazakhstan, Bahrain and Oman as the pain from low oil prices continues to undermine the economic and financial foundations of commodity exporters around the world. The decision to cut Saudi Arabia’s rating was the most striking decision though. As the world’s largest oil-producer, sitting on some of the largest reserves in the world, Saudi Arabia has been a bastion of financial stability for a long time. But it is also has a highly undiversified economy, dependent on oil for nearly all of its export earnings and budget revenues. Last October, S&P cut Saudi Arabia’s rating one level.