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The emirate of Ras Al-Khaimah has hired four banks to arrange fixed income investor meetings starting on Thursday for a potential US dollar-denominated sukuk offer, a document from lead arrangers showed. Ras Al-Khaimah has picked Al Hilal Bank, Citigroup, JP Morgan and National Bank of Abu Dhabi to arrange investor meetings in Asia, the Middle East and Europe, the document showed. Investor meetings will start in Singapore on Thursday, before moving to Kuala Lumpur on Friday, the UAE on Sunday and London on Monday.

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank said Sunday it has been shortlisted as a buyer for Citigroup 's Egypt retail business in what is set to be a heated battle to tap into one of the world's fastest growing economies. Mashreq and Emirates NBD are also reportedly bidding to buy Citi 's Egypt consumer banking network. Whoever wins this will have an advantage because Citibank has a good portfolio of clients, they have more than 100,000 credit cards, Tirad Al Mahmoud, ADIB's chief executive, said. Citi , which has also dropped its retail banking businesses in Turkey, Romania, Greece and Pakistan, has said it sees potential in other booming economies such as in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Qatar's Barwa Bank has hired Cenk Karacaoglu as head of syndications in the debt business, reporting to the bank's head of capital financing Arsalaan Ahmed. Before joining Barwa, Karacaoglu was briefly Al Rajhi Bank's head of trade finance, a post he held for around four months. Prior to that he was a vice president in the fixed income business of Turkey's Bank Asya for just over 11 years. Before he became a banker, Karacaoglu worked in Singapore Airline's finance department for five years. His hire is "part of the ongoing investment into the debt capital markets platform," a spokesperson for Barwa Bank said.

Bank Asya’s lawyer Süleyman Ta?ba? vows to challenge the Finance Ministry's Financial Crimes wing (MASAK) and the banking regulator calling for return of shares. Acting upon information that the Finance Ministry's Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) was engaged in concocting a report that would cast negative light on publicly-traded Bank Asya, Süleyman Ta?ba? has filed a letter to MASAK stating that only the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) and the Capital Markets Board (SPK) had authority. Adding that the incident constituted to an unconstitutional profiling of Bank Asya the lawyer vowed to defend the rights of the shareholders.

The e-Book "Democratic Wealth: Building a Citizens’ Economy" by Stuart White and Niki Sethi-Smith is a collection of essays that challenges the poverty of thinking around economic policy, particularly after the 2007 financial crash. It explores the renewed interest in republicanism and suggests this as a framework to shape an economy that serves the common good. It is a selection of articles from a series published by openDemocracy and Politics in Spires, a blog run by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. It ends with an afterword by James Meadway, senior economist at nef, on clearing a path for a better future.

Qatar International Islamic Bank (QIIB) held its Ordinary General Assembly Meetings on 15 March. Among the agenda items approved, approval was given to the Board recommendation to issue Additional Tier 1 Sukuk non-convertible into ordinary shares up to QAR 3.0 billion. The Board was delegated powers to decide the size of each issuance, terms and conditions, issuance currency after getting all necessary approvals from supervisory authorities. The meetings also approved the proposal to pay 40 per cent of the bank capital as cash dividends, equivalent to QAR 4.0 per share.

Qatar’s Masraf Al Rayan is eyeing a debut in the debt capital markets this year after inviting bankers to pitch for arranger roles on a potential U.S. dollar-denominated benchmark sukuk issue, sources said on Monday. The sharia-compliant institution is expected to raise funds before end-April. Masraf Al Rayan is “very close” to mandating arrangers for the upcoming sukuk issue, two sources said. Masraf Al Rayan joins a growing pipeline of potential Gulf issuance as borrowers want to obtain funds from the dollar debt markets before a possible increase in interest rates by the U.S. Federal Reserve later this year.

The President of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), Dr Ahmad Ali, will host an online press conference on Thursday, March 19th, 2015 at 09:30 GMT. Journalists interested in attending this online press conference will be able to ask questions live via the internet. The conference will be held in English, Arabic and French. This service is free and only requires a computer connected to the internet. Register on the following website: http://www.apo-opa.com/application.php?L=E&vc=ISB

To address the Financial Investment challenges in Mogadishu, Takaful, the first Islamic insurance company of Somalia, was opened December last year in Mogadishu, Somalia, marking a shift to protect critical assets and assist regional business practice in Somalia, which has for a long time been prone to risks without cover. The Takaful company already has successful operations in Mogadishu markets across Southern Somalia. The First Takaful and Re-Takaful Insurance partnership has already launched two regional operations in Mogadishu for the last three months.

The Thomson Reuters Global Sukuk Index is at 117.18655 points, down from 117.49811 at the end of last month but up from 115.79726 at the end of last year. The Thomson Reuters Investment Grade Sukuk Index is at 115.91606 against 115.48693 at the end of February and 113.69014 at end-2014. Sukuk in the pipeline include: Malaysia has hired three banks to manage the issuance of sovereign sukuk worth up to $2 billion. The emirate of Ras al-Khaimah picked four banks to arrange investor meetings for a potential US. dollar-denominated sukuk issue of benchmark size. Oman Telecommunications will seek shareholder approval on March 22 for a debut issue of sukuk; no size or time frame was given.

Dentons advised the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) on the update of the IsDB Trust Services Limited $10 billion Trust Certificate Issuance Programme completed on 24 February 2015. Dentons also advised the IsDB on the issue of $1 billion Trust Certificates due 2020 under the Programme, completed on 12 March 2015. The Programme was listed on the London Stock Exchange and NASDAQ Dubai. The Programme was arranged by HSBC and CIMB, HSBC, National Bank of Abu Dhabi PJSC and Standard Chartered Bank acted as Dealers. The Dentons team was led by Alex Roussos and included senior associate Beene Ndulo and associate Katie Phillips.

The efforts of proponents of Shariah-compliant investment in Malaysia, Dubai and elsewhere were fruitful in 2014. Several Sukuk offerings from non-Muslim countries represented a major breakthrough for a type of product that had previously been largely local in nature. Shariah-compliant equity and Sukuk investments remain relatively small in scale. Islamic finance is still a young industry in comparison with its conventional counterpart, growing fast but still representing a small fraction of global financial assets. The bulk of industry assets are still accounted for by Islamic bank deposit accounts.

Mubadala GE Capital is considering a return to the bond market as early as April as it seeks cash to fuel its lending business. The joint venture between the Abu Dhabi state-owned fund and General Electric provides commercial lending, equipment leasing, distribution and vendor finance solutions among other services. Rated Baa2/A by Moody's and Fitch respectively, Mubadala GE Capital has yet to appoint banks to arrange the bond, which will be of benchmark size. It is likely to pick arrangers from the group of banks which lent $750 million to the company in December 2013. The sukuk will probably be part of a regular programme.

The structure of Sukuk through the creation of Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) provides better transparency thereby reducing corruption and wastage as productive assets must be put to work in order to generate rental incomes for investors, rather than disappearing into offshore banking centres or participating in deliberately over priced projects. In its annual report, Transparency International ranks countries based on expert opinions of public sector corruption. Increased transparency can be used to inspire investor confidence and trust thus leading to increased foreign direct investment.

Despite the green bond issuance market increasing more than threefold to US$36bn last year on 2013, according to the Climate Bond Initiative (CBI), the UAE is still uncharted territory. However, the race is on to release the world’s first green sukuk, and this country is looking like a strong contender for the first issuer of a green sukuk. Instead of hitting the conventional bond buyers, a green sukuk can attract conventional bond investors to those diversifying their portfolios. All it would take is one issuer to come out in the region to show the demand.

The UAE is expected to issue the world’s first Sharia-compliant bond aimed at financing green energy projects this year, possibly as early as next month. Green bond issuance reached US$36.6 billion globally last year, more than triple the previous year’s total. $100bn of green bond issuance is expected this year. The London-based Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI) has helped to create international standards for this type of ethically responsible financial security, from which capital raised is used for projects such as solar and wind schemes as well as developing energy efficiency initiatives such as LED lighting.

IdealRatings has launched of a Shari’ah compliant Asia-Pacific REITs Index, called the IdealRatings Asia-Pacific REITs Index, for the use of Fund Managers who are benchmarking REITs funds. For a start, the REITs Index will cover Asia-Pacific REITs and it will subsequently widen the coverage to include the entire global REITs universe. The market cap-weighted, free-float Index has a methodology to review the universe eligibility annually. The Shari’ah screening of the eligible universe takes place quarterly and the index is also re-balanced on quarterly basis. The IdealRatings Asia-Pacific REITs Index is calculated in US Dollars with REITs listed in Australia, Japan, Singapore and other countries.

Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with South Korea's Woori Bank, aimed at further strengthening co-operation and sharing business opportunities. The signing ceremony held in Doha was signed by QIB's group CEO Bassel Gamal and Lee Dong-Gun, deputy CEO of Woori Bank, and attended by senior executives from both the banks. The partnership is aimed at servicing both Qatari and South Korean entities that are currently engaged in business activities in Qatar and/or South Korea; and companies that are intending in the future to set up such type of business arrangements.

Emirates Islamic marked International Women’s Day by celebrating female achievement across the organisation. Jamal Bin Ghalaita, Chief Executive Officer, Emirates Islamic and other senior management of the bank honoured 32 women employees at Emirates Islamic, who are seen as an inspiration to the rest of the organization. The women were presented a trophy and certificate of recognition at a special ceremony held at Emirates Islamic’s Healthcare City headquarters. The ceremony was part of Emirates Islamic’s initiative to commemorate International Women’s Day.

Gatehouse Bank has announced the addition of Threadneedle Investments as a shareholder in Gatehouse. Threadneedle, an international asset manager based in London with assets under management of $148.2 billion, has acquired a shareholding of approximately two per cent in Gatehouse. The addition of Threadneedle to its shareholder base enhances Gatehouse's ability to continue to deliver value-added opportunities for its clients. The bank has a long history of bridging capital from the GCC region and Southeast Asia with investment in Western markets.