IslamicFinance.de

According to HSBC Holdings Plc, sales of Islamic bonds may rise to US$44 billion this year as request outstrips supply and as Asian and Middle East investors tap the market complying with Islamic banking rulings. Companies and governments are tapping the Islamic bond market as borrowing costs decline amid rising investor demand.
Emirates Islamic Bank PJSC and First Gulf Bank PJSC of Abu Dhabi raised US$500 million each from sukuk sales.
Shariah-compliant bonds won 7.2% last year, according to the HSBC/Nasdaq Dubai US Dollar Sukuk Index, while debt in developing markets rose 8.5%, shows JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s EMBI Global Composite Index .

Banks in the United Arab Emirates may choose to refinance more than $3 billion of bonds due this year should pricing remain at current levels, as they search to extend the average maturity of their debt.
UAE banks have about $3.49 billion of bonds and sukuk maturing in 2012, according to data gathered by Bloomberg. This data also shows that Profit at UAE banks is starting to recover from the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, which curbed lending and forced them to take provisions against some of Dubai’s government-related entities.
Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC sold $500 million of five-year dollar-denominated sukuk in November.

Following the failure of the company to supply details on how it plans to repay $1 billion of sukuk maturing in October, Dana Gas Islamic bonds surged to a record.
Dana Gas shares fell 2.2 per cent, the most in more than a week.
It seems that the company's board considered updates on its stake in Mol Nyrt as well as on financing projects in Egypt and the UAE.

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.

Pakistan International Airlines Corp (PIA) raised $90 million (Dh330 million) through an Islamic syndicated fin-ancing facility.
Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Al Hilal Bank, Citibank, and United Bank Limited organized the facility being the mandated lead arrangers and joint bookrunners.
Clifford Chance and Haidermota & Co was the legal counsel to the arrangers, PIA being represented by Mandviwalla & Zafar.

According to Standard Chartered Saadiq, Islamic banking assets in the UAE are forseen to grow to 20 % of the total banking sector in 2012 from an estimated 18 % this year.
The bank anticipates Islamic assets to comprise 38 per cent of total consumer banking assets in the UAE in 2012, compared to about 35 per cent in 2010.
Globally, the Islamic banking industry is estimated to be worth $1 trillion.
Standard Chartered Saadiq plans to begin Islamic banking operations in Nigeria and Oman next year, as it seems to grow its Shariah-compliant business in the Middle East, Africa and southeast Asia.

United Arab Emirates (UAE)'s leading businesswomen are researching investment opportunities to work with Malaysians in two areas - Islamic finance and halal food.
According to Fatima Al Jaber, president of the Abu Dhabi Business Women Council and chief operating officer of Al Jaber Group, Islamic finance and halal food are the two mutual areas that Malaysia and UAE could work together. She added that UAE offered huge opportunities for Malaysians in many areas including leisure, hotel, sports, property, healthcare and education.

The growth of low-cost carrier flydubai is almost double compared to its launch in October 2010 in Pakistan despite heavy competition and slump in the industry.
The aviation industry has an important role in strengthening ties between UAE and Pakistan, which is evident from the growing number of air travellers between both countries.
The event was organised at Karachi Expo Centre parallel to UAE Expo 2011.

Investors from the UAE have invested UGX12bn ($4.8m) in the National Bank of Commerce, formerly Kigezi Bank of Commerce, with the purpose of raising shareholder dividends and introducing Islamic banking in Uganda.
There are more than 200 local shareholders and a lobby group from them approached NBC’s management to ask for loans to help them invest in agriculture – something that the Emiratis were very interested in so they can secure food stability.

Islamic banks operating in the UAE have objected to new lending rules enforced by the Central Bank early this year and requested amendments for their own business, motivating that some of the new rules violate Shariah banking.
The new lending law presented by the central bank for the country's 23 national banks and 28 foreign units capped personal loans at 20 times a borrower's monthly salary and stipulated the loan must be repaid within 48 months.

The prime theme of this event will be the impact of the recent rapid changes on the
Islamic finance sector in all pertinent aspects. The Conference will consider the
spectacular political and socio-economic developments that we have been witnessing and
their probable effects on the performance and future position of Islamic financial
institutions (IFI’s), the regulatory set-ups, and popularity of Islamic products being
offered to the public, governments and business firms.

The Conference is being organised by Emerald Group Publishing, the world’s leading
scholarly publisher of journals and books on business and management. Over 220
academic journals are currently published by Emerald, covering some 24 managerial
disciplines, in addition to a strong and growing presence in other related fields such as
LIS, social sciences, and engineering.

This Conference follows on the success of the Global Islamic Marketing Conference held
in Dubai over the period 20-22 March 2011, organised by Emerald in association with the
United Arab Emirates University.

Conference Objective

The chief objective of the forthcoming Conference is to assess the future of this sector,

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) will hold investor meetings for a potential dollar-denominated Islamic bond, or Sukuk.
Meetings will begin in Kuala Lumpur on Nov. 17, and will cover Singapore and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), before ending in London on Nov. 21.

Zawya Investor lists 64 UAE domiciled Sukuk going back to the $100m Tabreed Sukuk issued in March 2004. Forty-six of these have been issued, with 17 Sukuk that have already reached maturity.
There are also six Sukuk that have been announced, but not yet issued, with the last one offering on the slab being the proposed Majid Al Futtaim Sukuk, which would partially or wholly replace a cancelled $2bn conventional issue slated earlier this year, but ultimately canned due to inopportune market conditions. Majid Al Futtaim stated that it had authorized Standard Chartered and HSBC to help arrange and place the issue.

Reuters published a report that stated that Dubai Group has not made any interest payments, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, on $10bn of its outstanding debt since August 2010. The report added that no financial support from Dubai authorities has been offered.
It seems that at this point, Dubai Group’s assets could be worth as little as $2.5-3bn.

The Takaful industry in the UAE has had a remarkable growth over the last five years, with seven Takaful companies currently operating in the UAE and five new Takaful providers set to launch shortly.
Experts from the local Takaful industry discussed whether the rise of Takaful companies are improving or salvaging the local insurance market, at the 8th Middle East Insurex 2011.
The Middle East Insurex 2011 took place under the patronage of Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Minister of Finance and Industry, U.A.E.

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank gained a record net profit of Dh319.1 million for the quarter ended September 30, an increase of 3.2 per cent over the corresponding period on higher income.
Inspite of difficult market conditions and continued global financial crises, it performance from the core banking business was strong proofe being the fact that its net profit grew by 12.7 per cent year on year to Dh 1.086 billion in the nine-month period.
But it seems that the impact of the UAE Central Bank guidelines on Personal Banking fee income and asset growth was noticeable and the Bank anticipates a subdued growth to continue into 2012.

Because of the ongoing unrest in North Africa and the Middle East, many investors from Gulf countries have been directed to Turkey.
Hussain Alqemzi, Noor Islamic Bank’s chief executive officer, stated that the Noor Islamic Bank has been assigned to arrange and manage more than $1.4 billion Islamic finance capital market deals in Turkey in the last 18 months, becoming the most active United Arab Emirate bank in the country.
The total trade volume between Turkey and the six member states of the GCC, Bahrain, Kuwait Oman, Qatar, United Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, reached approximately more than $17 billion last year.

It appears that Mashreq Bank is the process of structuring a number of UAE-dirham denominated benchmark Sukuk. Masreq al Islami, the bank's Islamic window's CEO, Moinuddin Malim, stated that the bank was colaborating with three clients, from both the government and private sector who were searching to raise finance in the UAE market.

Governments in the Middle East were called by Dubai Asset managers in the region to unite their regulations governing the financial services industry.
Top executives stated that each GCC country — the UAE, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia — posesses its own set of rules, which sometimes don’t conform to each other and make it difficult for them to sell products.

Junaid Ahmed, President & CEO Dubai Islamic Bank Pakistan Limited, revealed the prospects of finding shari’a compliant solutions in the banking industry in an interview given to Profit.
He stated that DIBPL has always looked for its strength in its slogan and being the first Islamic Bank of the world and having a global presence in the UAE, Jordan, Turkey, Sudan and Bosnia, the bank is in a position to present the best mix of banking services to their customers.