IslamicFinance.de

Islamic Development Bank (IDB) issued $1 billion in five-year Islamic bonds, or sukuk, earlier this month, the largest ever privately-placed transaction from the supranational institution. The sukuk was priced on July 17 and carried a 1.8118 percent coupon at issue, underwritten by the IDB itself. The deal follows a $100 million three-year private placement in April and a $1.5 billion five-year sukuk in February, the largest ever public issuance from the multilateral lender. IDB usually prints one public transaction a year, with plans to issue a benchmark-sized - around $500 million - sukuk around May of next year.

FALCOM Financial Services and SEDCO Capital signed a strategic partnership agreement, according to which SEDCO Capital will manage the investment portfolio of FALCOM Arab Markets registered at the Capital Market Authority. Yazan Abdeen, Fund Manager at SEDCO Capital, will manage FALCOM Arab Markets Fund. Yazan has an experience of more than 12 years in analyzing and evaluating companies in the Middle East and offering professional services to clients through managing equity funds in Middle East markets. Established in 2005, FALCOM Financial Services has a paid capital exceeding one billion SAR.

SEDCO Holding Group’s Riyali Financial Literacy Program has recently signed partnership agreements with the Noble Center for Comprehensive Development and Al-Andalus Al-Khadra Training Center to provide training workshops for university students, as well as, elementary and secondary school students. Under the agreement, each center will aim to train 15,000 male and female university students and elementary school students during 2014 with each center approaching various schools and universities to offer free Riyali courses to students. The program, launched in late 2012, aims to improve financial practices among Saudi youth and kids, such as in financial planning, budgeting, investing and borrowing.

The Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) has unveiled new regulations and conditions to promote value-added investment and said investment licences may be issued within five days if all the required papers are submitted. Governor of SAGIA, Abdullatif Al-Othman, said they have introduced a speedy customer service system for the benefit of all investors.

Saudi Arabia's crowded insurance sector is set for consolidation amid low penetration rates and rising costs, highlighting the difficulties for smaller firms in the industry to maintain market share or grow their business. The Saudi market remains dominated by compulsory products, with medical and automotive insurance accounting for well over 75 percent of all gross written premiums. Other products such as personal health or life coverage make up only a fraction of total policies issued and premiums written. However, penetration rates across GCC member states could double by 2017 thanks to longer life expectancies and compulsory health insurance programmes.

Saleh Kamel, chairman Board of Trustees Iqraa Waqf for Employment & Business Expansion, has highlighted the worsening situation of endowment properties in Muslim countries as a result of interference of governments. Kamel who is also chairman of the board of trustees of Iqra Endowment, emphasized the role of development in fighting poverty while speaking at the 35th Albaraka Symposium for Islamic Economics. He urged the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) to strengthen its efforts in developing endowment properties in the Islamic world. Other speakers presented a number of models for endowments from different parts of the world, and emphasized the need for transparency.

The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group announced the launch of the US$2 billion Islamic Development Bank Infrastructure Fund II (the IDB Fund II), on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the IDB. The IDB Fund II will have a broad sectorial focus beyond core infrastructure sectors of power, telecommunications, transportation, and will include investment in oil and gas, refinery and petrochemicals, steel and aluminum, mining, logistics and an allocation for healthcare, education, and financial services. Its several founding investors have aggregate commitments totaling US$750 million for the first closing.

Saudi Postal Corporation and Alinma Bank, one of the fastest growing banking institutions in Saudi Arabia, have entered into an agreement with Western Union to offer Western Union money transfer services in the kingdom. Under the agreement, remittance services will be offered through the Ersal money transfer service which is the money transfer joint venture launched by Saudi Post and Alinma Bank in 2013. Starting in Ramadan, the service will be available at 15 post office locations across the kingdom, taking the number of Western Union locations in the country to over 200.

The Islamic Development Bank Group is holding its Annual Meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from 22-26 June 2014 and celebrating the IDB’s 40th Year Anniversary. The meetings will be attended by finance and economy ministers of the (56) member countries and more than 1,000 delegates. The Annual Meeting of the IDB Group will take place over a five-day period in conjunction with sub-meetings. Meanwhile, on the occasion of the 40th Anniversary of the IDB Group, a number of events will be held including a forum titled “Fostering Dynamic Ecosystems in Developing Economies”, which will be held on June 23, 2014. In addition, an exhibition on innovation will be held alongside the Annual Meeting, with more than 40 innovative projects and solutions from 19 member countries.

Fitch Ratings has affirmed the Islamic Development Bank's (IDB) Long-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at 'AAA' with a Stable Outlook and its Short-term IDR at 'F1+'. The affirmation and Stable Outlook reflect the following key rating factors: IDB is one of the strongest-capitalised multilateral development banks rated by Fitch, with an equity-to-assets ratio of 54% and a debt-to-equity ratio of 79.5% at end-1434H (3 November 2013). Credit risk remains moderate, other risks are manageable. Profits are moderate compared with commercial banks, but are steady and in line with peers, ensuring regular equity strengthening. Shareholder support, a secondary rating driver, remains strong.

The investment banking arm of Saudi Arabia’s Al Rajhi Bank has received regulatory approval for its first mutual fund that will invest in sukuk. Interestingly, Al Rajhi has never raised money through a sukuk issue itself. The fund, in the pipeline since 2012, has reportedlly been prompted by a growing number of client inquiries about investing in sukuk. Sukuk issuance in Saudi Arabia rose to the equivalent of $15.2 billion through 20 deals last year, compared to $11.2 billion through 18 deals in 2012. However, a number of the kingdom’s sharia scholars view trading in sukuk as outright trading of debt, which is banned by Islamic principles.

Saudi Telecom Company has issued a debut Islamic bond worth 2 billion Saudi riyals ($533.3 million) after receiving good demand. The 10-year Islamic bond carries a floating profit rate of 70 basis points over three-month SIBOR and was offered under its newly established 5 billion Saudi riyals private placement sukuk program. The debut Sukuk issuance of STC was almost two times oversubscribed. J.P. Morgan Saudi Arabia, NCB Capital Co. and Standard Chartered Capital Saudi Arabia were joint arrangers of the sukuk program as well as joint managers on the debut issue.

AHAB outlines a comprehensive settlement proposal to a group of banks and financial institutions with claims against the company. These asserted by banks, total billions of dollars, arise out of liabilities incurred through a massive fraud perpetrated by Maan Al Sanea in his time a head of the Money Exchange division of AHAB. The liabilities have so far spawned more than 70 lawsuits in at least 10 countries over the past five years.

The Islamic Development Bank has launched a programme to loan $180 million to six African countries for the purpose of renewable energy projects. Islamic finance is growing in Africa and mainly used by governments that want to develop infrastructure projects on a large scale. Saudi Arabia-based IDB promotes economic development in 56 countries through Shariah-compliant loans and grants. Just about half of the bank's member countries are in Africa. The continent is home to hundreds of millions of Muslims.

Moody's has assigned Bank Al Bilad a long-term credit rating of A2 and short term credit rating of P-1. Moody’s said that the ratings on Bank Al Bilad reflect the banks strong financial position, strong asset quality and coverage metrics, solid capitalisation levels and strong profitability resulting from growing business volume, efficiency gains and the solid contribution of non-funded revenues, in addition to the strong fundamentals of the Saudi economy supporting the growth in the banking sector. Moodys emphasised the importance of Islamic finance and associated opportunities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia's Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Development Co raised $400 million through an Islamic bond, with strong demand for the paper helping to reduce the cost at which it borrowed. The developer attracted a final order book of more than $1 billion for its five year sukuk. Final pricing came at a profit rate of 6.5 percent. This was tighter than the 6.75 percent earmarked earlier on Wednesday and well inside the high-6s percent given as initial pricing thoughts on Tuesday. Alkhair Capital, Deutsche Bank , Emirates NBD and Goldman Sachs were coordinators and bookrunners of the deal. Abu Dhabi-based Al Hilal Bank, as well as Qatari trio Al Rayan Investment, Barwa Bank and QInvest were also bookrunners.

The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) plans to issue a benchmark-sized Islamic bond in around May next year, the bank’s President Ahmad Mohamed Ali said. In February, AAA-rated IDB already priced a $1.5 billion, five-year sukuk. The new issue will reportedly be close to this year’s issue. Besides, IDB is considering whether to guarantee Tunisia’s proposed 700 million dinar ($431.79 million) debut sukuk. The Tunisian issue is aimed at helping the North African economy recover after being hit by the 2011 uprising. Moreover, IDB’s insurance arm, the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC), is also debating whether to extend a sukuk insurance product to boost the credit rating of Tunisia’s sukuk.

The demand for real estate in Saudi Arabia is expected to remain healthy as the rising Saudi population and evolving lifestyles are expected to keep real estate demand positive in the years to come. This is anticipated across the Kingdom, but especially in the major urban centers of Riyadh, Jeddah, Makkah, Al-Khobar and Dammam. According to recent reports, current demographics require that around three million housing units need to be created by 2040 to meet the needs of the growing population. However, a significant rise in building costs is hampering attempts by developers to meet a target of building up to 500,000 low-cost homes. As a result, rental inflation is expected to remain high over the coming years.

In early March, the Saudi Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME) announced a decree giving all companies five years to meet new air, water and noise pollution standards. All projects must fit into Saudi's plan for international development, and must meet international benchmarks standards as part of the PME's environmental plan to protect Saudi's health and natural resources. The new regulations are wide-reaching, addressing soil and land preservation, noise pollution from operating machinery, hazardous and radioactive waste that enters Saudi Arabia's coastal waters and other harmful pollutants. Companies refusing to comply with Saudi Arabia's new standards within five years will see their projects shut down and suspended for three months.

Kingdom Tower, the Saudi skyscraper set to be the world’s tallest building, will probably have construction funding in place by the end of the first half. The developer Jeddah Economic Co. is in talks to bring in Riyadh-based Alinma Bank as an adviser and lender. BNP Paribas (BNP) SA is currently advising the company, but the size of loan being sought hasn't been disclosed. The builder has been looking for financing since at least April 2012. Kingdom Holding Co. and partners, including tower builder Saudi Binladen Group, are trying to arrange funding after investing 8.7 billion riyals ($2.3 billion) in the project. They are seeking a bank loan with a maturity of five to seven years.