IslamicFinance.de

Andrew England in Abu Dhabi and Abeer Allam in Riyadh reported in the Financial Times about the Saudi conglomerate owned by Maan Al-Sanea.

The statement by Saad Group – its first admission that it is facing difficulties – came after bankers said the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (Sama) had frozen the personal accounts of Mr Sanea and members of his family.

IslamicFinance.de: Saad Group is related to the Golden Belt Sukuk. No information was given in the article hereto.

Dubai’s Nakheel receives bail-out cash, but the amount is not disclosed, reported Simeon Kerr in the Financial Times; it is also said that Nakheel was restructuring some payment plans with suppliers.

Contractors say developers such as Nakheel have started to honour some – but not all – payments, after months of delay.

FT has today a 4 page special on Islamic finance. The link below leads to its pdf version (size 10 MB), discussing standardisation issues, credit crunch and other topics.

Indonesia began gauging interest this week for its maiden global sukuk that is expected to raise up to USD 650 mn. Sri Mulyani Indrawati, finance minister, confirmed that the offering circular for the Sukuk Al Ijara reported John Aglionby in the Financial Times. Barclays Capital, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank are marketing the Sukuk. t has been rated Ba3 from Moody’s Investors Service, BB- from Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services and BB from Fitch Ratings.

Yields on traditional government bonds are coming down: The government’s 10-year paper is now offering 11.99%, down from above 14 % in February. Indonesia’s credit default swap spreads over US Treasuries have tightened to 491 bps, down from well over 1,000 bps late last year.

Simeon Kerr reported in The Financial times on 5 April that the Dubai government raised a
USD 635 mn Islamic finance to help retire a USD 1 bn in civil aviation authority debt maturing later this month.

The lease-based Islamic facilty syndication, led by Dubai Islamic Bank, mainly depends on local banks, but Industrial & Commercial Bank of China and WestLB also participated in the syndication, which was priced at 3 % points above US, UAE and euro benchmark rates. It is due to be repaid in three equal semi-annual instalments from April 2010.

It was the first Islamic transaction for the Industrial & Commercial Bank of China with a branch in the DIFC.

Dubai is preparing to seek a sovereign rating in the second half of this year.

John Aglionby reported on 23 February in the Financial Times that Indonesia is planning further after seing the first retail Sukuk being an outstanding success raising Rp 5,556bn (USD 466 mn) compared with the target of Rp 1,700 bn. The coupon rate is fixed at 12 per cent over three years and is paid monthly.

USD denominated Sukuk to retail investors and medium-term notes, the latter expected to be in the region of USD 3 bn, are still under consideration. The global sukuk and medium-term notes have been delayed after a successful international roadshow this month, pending parliamentary approval for the government’s revised budget.

Andrew England and David Oakley wrote a short briefing on 30 March in the Financial Times about a new Islamic private bank planned in Switzerland. National Bank of Kuwait is supposedly partnering with a Saudi-Arabian institution.

Source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/9bbfce9e-fe8c-11dc-9e04-000077b07658,Authorised=...