IslamicFinance.de

The third annual Invesco Middle East Asset Management Study shows that strong corporate returns are constraining the flow of year-on-year capital within family offices in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) from ­personal assets to corporate (family business) assets.
Two-fifths (40%) of family offices interviewed noted a strong shift from personal to corporate assets. Moreover, high net-worth assets in the Middle East account for nearly 4% of the global high-net-worth asset pool.

An agreement was signed by Al Baraka Banking Group with the World Bank in order to launch joint programmes under a set of new Shari'ah-compliant finance initiatives.
The programmes have the purpose to foster sustainable development of Islamic economics and finance, through the design and delivery of activities like identifying and disseminating sound practices in the Islamic financial services industry.

Aproximatly 100 investment projects worth 300 billion roubles have been introduced at the 4th International Summit in Kazan.
The organizers of the forum were the government of Tatarstan, the Islamic Business & Finance Development Foundation (IBFD) with the support of the Federation Council of Russia.
The summit is attended by thousands of guests from over 30 countries of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation including: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Morocco, Turkey, the UAE, Oman, Pakistan.

The former chief executive and founder of Bahrain's Bank Alkhair has lost a civil court allegation in the kingdom which chased to strike down his dismissal by the bank, the latest round of a legal battle between the two parties.
The judgement is the latest development in a series of legal cases following Al-Refai's departure from the bank.

Despite the fact that islamic banks have outperformed their conventional peers in most markets, a closer look presents the market dynamics are changing, revealing a new trend.
Two key indicators are cause for reflection: slowing growth rates and eroding profitability, as A T Kearney, a global management consultancy, states.
Cost income ratios are increasing in most markets, putting pressure on profitability. At the same time, declining growth rates are occurring in key geographies including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE.

According to A.T. Kearney, the modifying market dynamics are showing a new trend, with two key indicators giving cause for reflection: slowing growth rates and eroding profitability.
Descending growth rates are coming up in key geographies including KSA, Bahrain and the UAE, where growth rates have dropped to between 3% and 8% from double-digit figures.

Family businesses are estimated in the Middle East at around 90% of all companies in the region controlled by families. Furthermore, its importance was underlined with the launch of the Family Business Network GCC, the first of its kind in the area.
The network will be based in Dubai, including members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE

The Ordinary and Extra-ordinary General Meetings of Al Baraka Banking Group took place on Wednesday 21st March 2012 in Manama, the capital of Bahrain. Discussions included: the report submitted by the Board of Directors on the Group's activities during the financial year ended 31 December, 2011, auditors report on the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2011 and the report of the Unified Sharia Supervisory Board on financial year ended 31 December 2011.
Sheikh Saleh Abdullah Kamel, Chairman of the banking group stated reffering to the results that the outstanding financial results reached byt the bank in 2011 were the result of the implementation of cautiously studied ambitious strategies that made a balance between the adoption of prudent and conservative measures required.

The International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM) and the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. (ISDA) are pleased to announce the launch of the ISDA/IIFM Mubadalatul Arbaah (Profit Rate Swap) product standard to be used for Islamic hedging purposes.

The Mubadalatul Arbaah (MA) standard follows on from the “ISDA/IIFM Tahawwut (Hedging) Master Agreement” and provides the industry with a framework for Islamic risk mitigation. The launch of the Tahawwut Master Agreement as the template for Shari’ah-compliant risk management was officially announced at a press conference hosted by Central Bank of Bahrain in March 2010.

Potential for marketing Islamic funds cross-border in the Asia-Pacific and Asean is starting to be seen through the UCITS (undertakings for collective investment in transferable securities) platform. Despite the fact that it has already been used in Europe, it's the first time that it's being used in this region.
On January 16 2012 Kuala Lumpur-based CIMB declared the launch of three Islamic UCITS funds designed for cross-border distribution in Asia.
These funds will be registered and allocated in seven jurisdictions including the UK, Switzerland, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore.

Bahrain-based Capivest successfully closed $30m plus deal with Cemena Holding Company B.S.C. and now owns 9% of Naseej—a fully-integrated real estate and infrastructure Development Company to focus on mega projects in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
The deal that was closed last month and awarded Capivest cash in addition to the Naseej shares to settle the balance of the remaining dues from the sale of Falcon Cement Company to Cemena Holding Company in June 2008.

Capinnova Investment Bank went back into the black last year. The bank had a net profit of $86,000 for the fourth quarter compared with a net loss of $2 million for the same period in 2010.
Chairman Abdul Kareem Bucheery noted that they will continue to capitalise on these opportunities in 2012 and the following years by introducing good Islamic banking products that meet our investors requirements and expectations. He added that Islamic banking industry in Bahrain is one of the important sectors with an array of opportunities that are yet to be exploited.

The latest study on Islamic finance and wealth management shows that the UAE residents are estimated to be third richest in the Muslim world with per capita income of $49,600 (Dh182, 000).
It seems that Qatar leads the Muslims world with per capita income of $79,000 followed by Brunei at $51,600.
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries dominate the top list with Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and Saudi Arabia ranked fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh.

It seems that a long-awaited mega Islamic bank with the headquarter in Bahrain may be launched this year and $600 million of its $one billion capital will be contributed by Islamic banks in the Arab region.
The remaining capital will be subscribed by local sovereign wealth funds and other financial institutions and investors.
According to Adnan Youssef, chairman of the Beirut-based Union of Arab Banks (UAB), first noted that the bank would have a capital of $10 billion and would be a joint venture between regional Islamic banks and other investors.

Ireland has conducted its first Malaysian-managed fund platform. The Central Bank of Ireland has approved the establishment of CIMB-Principal Islamic Asset Management (Ireland) Public Limited: a joint venture between Kuala Lumpur headquartered CIMB Group and Principal Global Investors.
The newly created joint venture will uphold a range of international Islamic funds on the platform from its Dublin domicile. Three equity UCITS are being registered: Islamic Global Emerging Markets Fund; Islamic Asia-Pacific ex-Japan Fund, and Islamic ASEAN Equity Fund.
Once registered the funds will be spread in the UK, Switzerland, Germany, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Singapore.

The 1st Ernst & Young World Islamic Banking Competitiveness Report 2011 presented at the 18th Annual World Islamic Banking Conference stated that Islamic banking assets with commercial banks globally will reach US$1.1 trillion in 2012, a significant jump of 33% from their 2010 level of US$826 billion. In the MENA region, Islamic banking assets increased to US$416 billion in 2010, representing a five year CAGR of 20% compared to less than 9% for conventional banks. As new geographies open up to Islamic banking, the MENA Islamic banking industry is expected to more than double to US$990 billion by 2015.

Bahrain’s BMI Bank has signed a strategic agreement with regional insurer Medgulf Allianz Takaful.
This agreement will allow the bank to present customers a suite of life and non-life Takaful products through its branch network.

Saudi Arabia has the largest population, GDP and oil reserves in the GCC region and is strategically and militarily important on both a regional and global scale. Despite all this, unlike its neighbors the UAE or Bahrain, Saudi Arabia is not a culturally or economically-welcoming place for international business and as such much of Saudi Arabia’s non-oil related business is an internal market.
The country has given birth to some monumental Sukuk over the last few years, like the 20-year $2.1bn Saudi Basic Industries Corporation issue of 2007.
Most of the Sukuk issued have been for internal consumption.

Despite the fact that Zawya only covers Middle East-based funds, the sector is popular especially in Saudi Arabia, where 22 of the 24 funds listed are domiciled. The other two funds are from Kuwait and Bahrain.
There are two types of multi-manager funds: those that invest in a range of other funds controlled by different asset managers, named funds of funds, and those that appoint external managers with specific expertise to invest separate tranches of the provider’s portfolio, called manager of managers funds.
Analyzing funds of funds, it seems that there is a lot of interest in global Shari’ah compliant funds-of-funds (41.7%). Top performer is the $15.2m Al-Rajhi Multi Asset Conservative fund, managed by Mohammed Ishaq Ali of Al Rajhi Capital.

According to Kuwait Finance House-Bahrain CEO and MD, Abdul Hakim Al-Khayyat, Islamic banking has many advantages and capabilities that are giving it permission to play an important role in solving many economic problems in the GCC.
Al-Khayyat underlined the fact that Islamic banking is not operating at full swing yet, either as a result of lack of legislations or opportunities. Furthermore, he notified that governments need to launch more Sukuk, so they can provide short-term liquidity instruments.
However, since legislations that organise the issuance of Sukuk in some countries don't exist, this significant instrument has been presented as extinct, which consumes the efforts of Islamic banks to help markets overcome their crises.