IslamicFinance.de

Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Development has mandated banks to arrange investor meetings ahead of a planned U.S. dollar five-year sukuk offering. If the deal goes ahead, Dar Al Arkan will be the first Saudi company to issue an international bond this year. The banks mandated are Alkhair Capital, Deutsche Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD Capital, Goldman Sachs International, Nomura, Noor Bank and Standard Chartered Bank, who will act as joint bookrunners of the deal.

Emirates airline mandated local and international banks to arrange a global investor roadshow ahead of a possible sukuk issuance. The carrier mandated Citi and Standard Chartered Bank as global coordinators and joint lead managers, alongside BNP Paribas, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Emirates NBD Capital, and Noor Bank as joint lead managers. Proceeds from the issuance will be used for general corporate purposes. Emirates did not disclose the size of the possible sukuk, but said it will be of benchmark size. The company has tapped the debt capital markets with four issuances since 2011 raising over $3.65 billion, over 50% of which has been from sukuk. The most recent aircraft order was for 36 Airbus A380s worth $16 billion and was made in late January. Delivery of the aircraft will begin in 2020.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has directed the government to resolve a dispute with banks facing higher Islamic tax liabilities. The General Authority of Zakat and Tax (GAZT) is demanding tax for years going back as far as 2002. Banks are contesting the extra payments, which are estimated at around 9.8 billion riyals ($2.6 billion) across 11 of the kingdom’s 12 listed banks. Although Saudi banks and other firms generally do not pay corporate tax, they are subject to zakat, a 2.5% levy on each bank’s net worth. Lenders and the authorities have been at loggerheads over the amount of zakat they pay for more than a decade. The dispute has captured more attention recently as the kingdom seeks to attract billions of dollars of foreign investment from global equity indexes. Bankers say the way the tax is calculated is opaque and the heavy financial demands on banks threaten the stability of the banking sector and capital markets.

The Rental Disputes Center (RDC) has received a generous donation of AED 500,000 from Emirates Islamic Bank to support insolvent tenants in rental claims disputes. The RDC has already set up the "Yad Al Khair Committee" to study the cases that require support from the donation. Awatif Al Harmoodi, General Manager of Operational Quality & Processes at Emirates Islamic Bank, said Emirates Islamic Bank is keen to expand its corporate social responsibility strategy to cover all segments of the UAE and will continue to cooperate with the RDC.

Saudi Arabia is committed to the sukuk market and will issue Islamic bonds as soon as market conditions allow. Fahad al-Saif, president of Saudi Arabia’s debt management office (DMO) said Saudi Arabia had a ratio of 65% to 35% for local to international issuance, plus or minus 10%. He added that the DMO aimed to develop the local market but not to crowd out the banks. Saudi Arabia started issuing debt in the international markets in 2016 when it issued $39 billion in bonds, including a $9 billion sukuk. Domestically, the government has raised a total of over 70 billion riyals ($18.67 billion) through monthly local currency sukuk issues. The kingdom has recently agreed the refinancing, extension and upsizing of a $10 billion loan it had raised in 2016. The loan has now been increased to $16 billion. Furthermore, a new dollar bond sale is expected over the coming weeks.

GFH Financial Group said its recent partnership with Bahrain Fintech Bay (BFB) as a founding partner will drive innovation and create opportunities for growth. The partnership reflects GFH’s strategy to strengthen the integration of Fintech in the region. According to GFH Financial Group's CEO Hisham Alrayes, GFH provides new entrants access to a sophisticated network and gives advice on how to reach regional and international capital and markets.

Al Hilal Bank has announced the dividend payout of the Al Hilal Global Sukuk Fund. The Fund, which was launched in March 2012, distributed a 3.93% dividend to all registered unit holders. Al Hilal Bank CEO Alex Coelho said the Fund had registered excellent cumulative total returns since its inception in 2012. Al Hilal Bank currently offers 3 open-ended mutual funds inclusive of the Global Sukuk Fund. In 2017, Al Hilal Global Sukuk Fund was awarded the title "Best Fund over 3 years", while the GCC Equity Fund received the "Best Islamic Fund" award in 2013 and 2014. The bank plans to continue launching investment products as part of its ongoing efforts to create value and increase diversification for its clients.

Saudi Arabia is expanding the refinancing of a $10 billion international loan to raise $16 billion. The kingdom is introducing a significant Islamic tranche to the transaction, supporting Saudi Arabia’s goal of becoming the leading centre for Islamic finance. A $16 billion facility would be one of the largest syndicated loans ever extended in emerging markets. The kingdom raised the original $10 billion loan from 14 core banks in 2016, in what was its first jumbo transaction after a slump in international oil prices. A further dollar debt issuance is also planned, which could be marketed over the next few weeks.

Dubai Airport Freezone Authority (DAFZA) has partnered with Dubai Islamic Economy Development Centre and venture firm Technolera to launch a new start-up incubator. Goodforce Labs is launched to help Islamic small and medium enterprises to reach $50m in annual revenues and a measurable social impact. It will help start-ups to start, manage and develop their businesses while providing support in areas including design, marketing, operations management and technology. DAFZA said there are more than 2,500 companies in the ethical Islamic lifestyle market but many struggle to grow and survive. Start-ups that have signed up to the incubator so far include handicraft e-commerce platform Growmada, cloud-based charitable endowment manager Waqf 2.0, disciplined entertainment product specialist Zileej and modest women’s clothing firm Rabia Z. Financial literary firm iWealth and halal food e-learning platform Smart Halal are among the other entrants.

Saudi authorities are preparing to auction billions of dollars of real estate and cars belonging to billionaire Maan al-Sanea. This is the latest signal that Saudi Arabia is serious about holding its elites to account. In an anti-corruption crackdown last November, authorities detained several senior officials on charges of alleged graft. The al-Sanea case is separate from the main anti-graft campaign. The businessman was detained for unpaid debt dating back to 2009 when his company, Saad Group, defaulted on debts. Creditors have spent the past nine years pursuing Saad for debt that some estimate to be between 40 billion riyals ($10.67 billion) and 60 billion riyals. Al-Sanea's real estate in Khobar was valued at around 4.4 billion riyals. Authorities are preparing an auction to sell his vehicles, equipment, a large quantity of building materials and some property before the month of Ramadan.

Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) welcomes applications for the third cohort of its Regulatory Laboratory (Reglab) with special focus on the small-medium enterprise (SME) sector. ADGM therefore encourages all FinTech and RegTech companies, in particular those with a SME focus, to apply and be part of its RegLab. This includes technology startups which offer tools to both institutions and SMEs alike. The application period will close on 10 May 2018.

RegLab allows participants to explore and develop innovative solutions in a risk-appropriate and cost-effective environment. Moreover, participants will have access to a digital sandbox service provided by Temenos that enables them to integrate their solutions with banking data and functionality.

For further details of the ADGM RegLab programme, please visit www.fintech.adgm.com or contact fintech@adgm.com.

Saudi Arabian real estate developer Dar Al Arkan met fixed income investors last week for a non-deal roadshow. The aim of the meeting was to update investors on the company’s business, so no concrete bond issue plan was discussed. The roadshow was held last week in Dubai and arranged by Emirates NBD. Dar Al Arkan issued $500 million (Dh1.8 billion) of sukuk last April with a profit rate of 6.875% per annum. It also has $450 million of sukuk due in June this year, $400 million of sukuk due in 2019 and a further $500 million of sukuk, those issued last year, maturing in 2022.

Qatar's QINVEST announced its end of year results for 2017. Revenues from all business lines amounted to QR368.6m ($101.3m), resulting in operating profit of QR177.3m ($48.7m) and net profit of QR65.9m ($18.1m). The group’s global assets stood at QR4.45bn ($1.22bn) as of 31 December 2017. QINVEST has continued to enjoy a strong liquidity position of $120m as of December 2017. The company has also taken the decision to early adopt IFRS9 accounting standard, reducing future volatility from its reported results. The firm launched two income-generating Ijara funds in 2017 and both were oversubscribed. QINVEST will look to launch the third in the series of the Ijarah funds during 2018 to meet market demand.

The Saudi Capital Markets Authority has announced its resolution approving Bank Aljazira’s request to increase its capital by way of rights issue valued at SAR 3,000,000,000. The offering price and the number of shares will be determined after market closing of the same day in which the extraordinary general assembly meeting is held. After reviewing the bank’s application in light of the governing regulatory requirements, the CMA has issued its resolution approving Bank Aljazira’s capital increase request. The CMA’s approval merely means that the legal requirements as per the Capital Market Law and its Implementing Regulations have been met.

Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) is celebrating the listing of a $1 billion Sukuk on Nasdaq Dubai. The listing is the first benchmark dollar-denominated sukuk from a GCC issuer in 2018. DIB's Group CEO Dr Adnan Chilwan said the bank's master plan was developed a decade ago and has yielded solid results so far. He added that the strong demand for the credit continues to grow across a diverse global investor base. This issuance is DIB’s sixth sukuk on Nasdaq Dubai, making the bank the largest UAE debt issuer by value on the exchange with a total of $5.25 billion. The total value of all sukuk listed on Dubai’s exchanges has now reached $53.47 billion, the largest amount of any listing centre in the world.

The International Innovative Platform for Islamic Economy Products (IIPIEP 2018) took place on 21 February in Dubai. The event was organized by Dubai Airport Freezone Authority (DAFZA) in cooperation with International Center of Islamic Economy (ICIE). The first product launched was the 'Exchangeable Sukuk', which has been created to mobilize resources using Sukuk that are tradable and don’t require the utilization of bank assets. The second product announced was the 'Awqaf Fund' which aims to create a new simple sustainable product for anyone who wants to put their money into waqf. The 'Flexible Credit Card' was the third product launched at IIPIEP 2018, which seeks to combine investment with funding. The customer gets balance in credit and at the same time an investment account. Held at Grand Hyatt Dubai, the event was attended by industry experts, innovators and decision-makers. It was supported by Alinma Bank, Islamic Development Bank and Dubai Islamic Economy Development Centre, sponsored by National Bonds and National Commercial Bank.

Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) celebrates the listing of a $1 billion Sukuk on Nasdaq Dubai. The Sukuk is the first benchmark dollar-denominated Sukuk from a GCC issuer in 2018. It is DIB's sixth Sukuk on Nasdaq Dubai, making the bank the largest UAE debt issuer with a total of $5.25 billion. The latest Sukuk carries a profit rate of 3.625% with a five-year tenor. DIB's Group CEO Dr Adnan Chilwan said the master plan developed a decade ago has yielded solid results and the strong demand for the credit continues to grow across a diverse global investor base. He added that Nasdaq Dubai provided high visibility in the marketplace as well as close links to investors in the region and internationally.

Bandar Hajjar, president of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), announced that the bank would soon issue its largest sized Sukuk for $2.5 billion. IDB is a regular issuer of Sukuk having last issued in September 2017 with a $1.25 billion issuance which was priced at 2.261%. The bank has recently partnered with China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and plans to co-finance many projects in Africa. Africa has witnessed a growing share of mostly sovereign Sukuk issuances. Sudan, Gambia, Senegal, South Africa have all issued sovereign sukuk, the latest issuer is Cote d’Ivoire with its inaugural debut in 2015 of USD 260 million.

Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD) is seeking to raise a $1 billion loan to refinance its existing debt. The state-owned holding company aims to raise a five-year loan to partly repay a $2.55 billion facility that matures in June. ICD owns stakes in some of Dubai’s biggest companies including Emirates, Emaar Properties and Emirates NBD. The company raised the loan in 2013 and it includes a $875 million facility and a 6.15 billion dirham ($1.7 billion) portion. HSBC Holdings, Citigroup, Standard Chartered, Emirates NBD and Dubai Islamic Bank were among lenders that provided the original loan.

Qatar Islamic Insurance has reported more than 1% year-on-year rise in gross written contribution (premium) of QR316.6mn in 2017. The company’s earnings-per-share was QR4.13 compared to QR4.23 a year ago. The policyholders’ surplus registered more than 100% growth to QR16.2mn in 2017 compared to QR7.9mn in the previous year. Chairman Sheikh Abdulla bin Thani al-Thani said the company would distribute, for the eighth consecutive year, 20% surplus to all the eligible policyholders for 2017. The management of Qatar Islamic Insurance achieved these results despite a very challenging environment in 2017 due to negative impact of low oil prices on national economy.