IslamicFinance.de

Turkey’s Islamic banks want to take advantage of the lowest borrowing costs in more than five years and the rising demand for the country’s securities by salling sukuk.
The Turkish government takes in consideration to change tax laws in order to encourage sukuk sales.
Bebinning with last april the government also allowed companies to to issue debt in accordance with Islamic finance rules.

In order to pay Iran for the import of oil, India looks at the possibility of opening ccounts in banks like Dubai-based Noor Islamic Bank. National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) is also looking at opening an account in a UAE or Turkey based bank to receive direct money transfer from oil companies.

Noor Islamic Bank doesn't plan to extend for now.
The deal size on the two issues owned by Noor Islamic Bank, one in the Gulf region and another one in Turkey, is between $250 million to $300 million.

Saudi investors voted to begin investing in Bosnia with a starting capital of $50 million. Turkey announced that it will extend credit lines for infrastructure projects.
The Islamic Development Bank (IDB), Al Baraka BARKA.BH banking group and other Saudi investors have formed a joint investment company for Bosnia that tries to help Bosnia in its process of development.

Bill Gates and Warren Buffett began an expedition in order to promote their commitment named ‘Giving Pledge’. This commitment is an engagement made by billionaires to give away at least half of their wealth.
The question is if the next stop for this programme is Turkey.
At this point this programme appears to be not so welcomed, as in China Buffett and Gates got a pretty indifferent response, in public at least, and none of India’s economic winners has yet signed on.

Norton Rose (Middle East) LLP has advised Citibank as arranger in relation to a US$300,000,000 dual tranche Murabaha syndicated facility for Turkiye Finans Kat?l?m Bankas? A.S., an Islamic bank in Turkey 60% owned by the National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia. It is the largest Islamic syndication in Turkey to date.
The initial transaction size was increased to US$300,000,000 due to high interest from banks in Europe, Middle East and Asia.

Al Baraka Turk Participation Bank showed an increase in total operating income of three per cent. After deducting expenses, provisions and taxes, net income increased by 35 per cent for the period.
Turkey is considered as one of the key markets for the group because of the diversity and abundance of economic activities and huge promising opportunities that it offers.

Kuveyt Turk Participation Bank (KTPB) has set the tone by venturing abroad into Germany, Dubai, Bahrain and Kazakhstan and by pioneering new products based on physical gold and exporting them to markets in Malaysia and elsewhere through the global network of KFH. These include gold-backed exchange traded funds (ETFs), gold-backed banking accounts and sukuk. Ufuk Uyan, CEO of Kuveyt Turk Participation Bank has been at the forefront of the expansion of KTPB, taking it to the top 10 tier of Turkish banks. Here Ufuk Uyan discusses with Arab News the state of the participation banking sector in Turkey, the performance of KTPB in 2010 and the prospects and challenges for the industry in 2011 and beyond.

India may soon get its first foreign Islamic bank with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) seeking government approval to allow Turkey's Bank Asya to offer Shariah-compliant lending in the country. Bank Asya is keen to start its Indian operations through a representative office in Mumbai.
RBI has requested the government to consider the Turkish bank's application within 45 days.

Qatar Islamic Bank (QIBK) acting CEO Ahmad Meshari declined to comment on a report in Haberturk newspaper on March 10 that the bank plans to buy 25 % of Asya Katilim.

Qatar Islamic Bank wants to enter the Turkish market and is looking into buying other Islamic units in Qatar, its acting CEO Ahmad Meshari said in Doha yesterday.

The following stocks may be active in Turkey:
- Anadolu Anonim Turk Sigorta Sirketi (ANSGR TI)
- Asya Katilim Bankasi AS (ASYAB)
- Aygaz AS (AYGAZ)
- Turkiye Vakiflar Bankasi TAO (VAKBN)

The International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation (IILM) is expected to issue the first Shariah-compliant financial instruments by year-end.
The minimum size of the instruments could be US$300 million depending on the market demand.
The IILM was established on October 2010 with 14 founding shareholders, comprising the 12 central banks of Indonesia, Iran, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Malaysia,Mauritius, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as well as two multi-lateral institutions, the Islamic Development Bank and the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector.

Kuwait Finance House's (KFH) Turkish unit will launch a 500 million US dollar Islamic bond by the end of the year.
Mohammed Al-Omar said the Islamic lender will issue the benchmark Sukuk following the success of Turkey's first Islamic bond offering, from lender Kuveyt Turk in August.
Al-Omar noted that the law is a significant step forward that reveals a great desire by many Turkish companies that have good assets but lack the suitable financing to expand locally and overseas to benefit from this new financing instrument; especially after those companies realized the numerous benefits of Sukuk, which include providing financing through Sukuk while neither hindering projects nor exhausting their budgets.

Almost unnoticed, the Turkish National Assembly in Ankara passed the Finance Bill 2011 in February 2011 which includes tax neutrality measures for Sukuk Al-Ijara (leasing certificates) thus paving the way for a spate of corporate Sukuk issuances in the country.
The Istanbul Stock Exchange also launched the first Participation Bank Index paving the way for Islamic equity funds and products to be launched in the Turkish market.

Bank Asya, one of Turkey’s four Islamic banks, has mandated ABC Islamic Bank, National Bank of Abu Dhabi and Standard Chartered to arrange its $150m dual currency one year murabaha loan.

Insurance company Neova Sigorta is set to implement takaful in Turkey.
The company will distribute its profits to customers. Neova Sigorta will be able to implement the takaful system once it begins to make a profit in three to four years.

This year following the creation of a Sharia-compliant share index on the country’s main stock exchange will start Turkey’s first investment fund to comply with Islamic rules.
Bizim Securities will seek to raise an initial 100 million Turkish Liras ($64 million) to start investing in the second half of this year.

A Memorandum of Intents (MOI) on cooperation in designing funding, developing and operating industrial zones projects was recently signed by the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), the private sector arm of the Islamic Development Bank Group, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Yemen, and the Union of Chambers of Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB).
The MOI aims to launch and facilitate cooperation and coordination among the three parties in the formulation, development, promotion and implementation of industrial zones in Yemen as a model of special economic zones based on partnership between the public and private sectors through the use of the Turkish experience in organized industrial zones as well as the international best practices and experiences.

Ben Verlong’s thriller “Takiye: Allah’?n Yolunda” a Dutch-Turkish joint production dealt with a major investment scam that lost many people’s life savings and the disappearance of investors along with huge amounts of money. The film starred Erhan Emre as a man who trusts his money in an Islamic investment, convincing those around him to do the same, only to be left empty-handed after the company goes bankrupt with the executives nowhere in sight.

The story is based on a major investment scam, which attracted substantial amounts in Germany from Turkish migrants.