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The Government of Dubai mandated five banks to arrange a benchmark-sized, dollar-denominated Islamic bond which is expected to price on Tuesday in the low four percent area. The mandated banks to arrange the deal are Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD, HSBC Holdings, National Bank of Abu Dhabi and Standard Chartered.

The deadline for Qatari lender Masraf Al Rayan to come up with an offer for Islamic Bank of Britain (IBB) concerning its takeover has been extended. It initially lapsed on December 10th and was now extended to January 7th. IBB is majority-owned by Qatar International Islamic Bank. The latter has been discussing selling a controlling stake in the British bank with Masraf Al Rayan since June 2012.
According to a statement by IBB, its lending growth for the first nine months of 2012 have been driven by two new home financing plans. Furthermore, the bank will search for ways to offer more products.

Standard & Poor's affirmed the rating of the Islamic Development Bank at 'AAA/A-1+'. The stand-alone credit profile of the bank is 'aaa', which is a reflection of the rating agency's assessment of the bank's "very strong" business profile and "extremely strong" financial profile. The outlook is said to be stable. According to expectations, IsDB will continue and maintain its strong credit metrics.

On Thursday , Dubai Islamic Bank announced its board's approval of the plans to fully acquire its mortgage unit Tamweel. The bank already holds 58.2% of the stakes. It further intends to make a tender offer to buy all shares off Tamweel's other shareholders. Every shareholder of Tamweel will be offered 10 DIB shares for every 18 Tamweel shares. As soon as the offer is closed, DIB will make an application to the regulator to delist Tamweel from the Dubai Financial Market.

Malaysian central bank's governor confirmed that the new legislation for Islamic banking and takaful products is in the final stages. The new legislation should give a stronger legal basis to financial institutions. However, there was no time frame set for launch of the legal framework.

The deadline for discussions about the takeover of the Islamic Bank of Britain (IBB) by Masraf, the biggest Qatari bank, had been extended to January 7. IBB which is majority-owned by Qatar International Islamic Bank is trying to invigorate its business after the profit downturn in 2011 when it reported a loss of 8.9 million pounds. According to a separate statement released last week, IBB registered a 63% growth in home financing and a 43% up in long-term savings deposits in the first nine months of 2012. Management of the bank will continue focusing on secured financing and increasing of the loyalty of young savers.

Kuveyt Turk has made an application for a a German banking licence. According to its Chief Executive - Ufuk Uyan - it thus aims to become the first Islamic bank in Germany. The company is now waiting for a response from German financial watchdog BaFin. Kuveyt Turk's plans include opening a number of branches in Germany and probably in other European countries later. Moreover, it is decided upon an initial capital investment worth 45 million euros ($58 million) in the planned German unit.

Kuwait Finance House has informed its shareholders about the planned raising of the share capital by 20 pct . This move should help KFH to maintain stable ratings, improve capital ratios and boost fund expansion.

Saudi Arabia is studying draft regulations which are probable to contribute to the establishment of real a real estate refinancing company similar to U.S. firm Fannie Mae. The government has been making efforts to develop a housing mortgage sector in the kingdom for a long time. Saudi Arabia's conservative character however stick to restrictions of Islamic sharia law which have made it difficult to secure lending against property. Meanwhile, the country suffers from a shortage of housing, especially among lower and middle-income people. As land prices rise quickly, several months ago the government passed laws to regulate mortgage and lease lending.

According to Bank of Khartoum's plans, the bank will increase its capital more than three times with the help of an expansion in the resource-rich country enabled by its Gulf investors. The investors are certain that peace with South Sudan will be maintained. Due to wars, poverty and a decade-long conflict with South Sudan, Sudan could not make use of the possible large-scale foreign investments so far. The U.S. sanctions against Sudan in place over its human rights record since 1997 have had an enormous effect. Since the agreement to end hostilities in September, Gulf Arab investors look more positively on Sudan.

Two new Islamic banks are planned to be opened in Mali and Benin by the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD). The openings are scheduled for next year. The initiative is part of the efforts to expand the industry's consumer base in Africa. According to Khaled Al-Aboodi, the development of Islamic banking in Africa is more important in terms of supplies than in terms of the potentially massive demand. ICD further intends to establish Islamic financial institutions including banks and takaful insurers in Africa. The established in 2009 Tamweel Africa Holding (TAH) is to contribute to the establishment, acquisition and management of Islamic financial institutions in West Africa.

The new web portal that launched in Egypt claims to be the first crowd funding service in the country subject to the principles of Islamic finance. The portal enables a huge number of investors to become shareholders in a project. In order to that, they will need to contribute only very small amounts of money and will not have to go through stock exchange. Co-founder of the portal Shehab Marzban explains that micro-projects and larger projects are funded by banks. However, projects worth between $50,000 and $300,000 need to find another source of funding. The portal is aimed to bridge this gap.

A new internet portal, which was recently launched in Egypt, is said to be the first crowd funding service in the country compliant with the principles of Islamic finance. Through cloud funding, numerous investors will be able to participate as shareholders in a project by contributing very small amounts of money. Going through a stock exchange will not be necessary. According to Shehab Marzban, co-founder of shekra.com, the portal is aimed at smaller projects needing between $50,000 and $300,000 and for which there are no banks taking care of funding. The idea of the website is to bridge this gap and to gather creative people an investors in order to fund ideas and projects.

The moderate Islamists-led government of Tunisia makes plans to issue sukuks worth 1 billion dinars ($634 million) in the coming year. Thus, the country will be using this financial sector for the first time in order to fund public borrowing. Chadli Ayari, the governor of the Central Bank, prompted that the issuance is t be expected at the beginning of 2013. Just as several other government in North Africa, Tunisia has waken up after last year's Arab Spring to see and make use of the strong growth potential in the Islamic banking sector.

Arcapita Bank received the approval of the court for a $125 million bankruptcy loan. The loan will be provided by Fortress Investment Group (FIG.N) and is said to be the first such loan in consistency with the sharia principles. It will enable the funding of the company in its efforts to restructure debt after filing for bankruptcy in March. Though the loan was initially set at $100 million, the committee succeeded in pushing to raise it. The approval was given by Judge Sean Lane in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, New York.

Just as HSBC Holdings announced it would shrink its Islamic banking operations in a number of countries, the National Bank of Abu Dhabi made plans to increase the contribution of its Shariah-compliant operations three times over the next eight years. Thus, it becomes clear that HSBC's move is nothing but a sign of its own priorities. While it is set to continue its operations mainly in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia with a limited presence in Indonesia, local banks have the opportunity to step in for it.

In a statement, Fitch Ratings announced that it assigned the upcoming USD3bn Perusahaan Penerbit SBSN Indonesia III's (PPSI-III) global certificates (Sukuk), due 2022, a rating of 'BBB-(EXP)'. This rating is in accordance with the expectations. Thus, Fitch's view that the cashflows supporting payment on the Sukuk constitute direct, unconditional, unsecured and general obligations of the Republic of Indonesia are confirmed.

Dana Gas, which announced inability to repay a $920 million sukuk on maturity last week, claims to have no information about any action from bondholders against the company. It is expected that creditors will stake claim to the company's assets in Egypt. In a statement by Dana, it was confirmed that the company is not aware of any enforcement actions against the company by sukukholders. They further added that discussions with the adhoc committee of sukukholders show constructive progress.

Almarai Co, a producer of dairy and food products, announced its intentions of issuing the second tranche of a riyal-denominated sukuk programme. The issuance is to be made in the coming months and is directed towards private investors. The first tranche of the programme brought the company 1 billion riyals ($266.6 million). The investors in the second tranche have to be residents of the Kingdom. The sukuk is to contribute to financing Almarai's $4.2 billion investment programme, the goal of which is the expansion of the company's business between 2013 to 2017.

Islamic mortgage provider Tamweel registered a drop in the profit during the third quarter of the year. The drop is as high as 46,5%, which misses the forecasts of analysts by far. The 8.4 million dirhams ($2.3 million) net profit in Q3 of 2012 contrasts with 15.7 million dirhams in the same period last year. The forcasts by Arqaam Capital and EFG Hermes lied at a profit of 22 million dirhams.

Read more on: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/22/emirates-tamweel-results-idUSL...