IslamicFinance.de

Saudi Arabia is discussing with banks the possibility to launch a riyal-denominated Islamic bond, or sukuk as the kingdom abandons its aversion to sovereign-level debt to help build a local currency yield curve.
Talks are ongoing between the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency and local and international banks with operations in the kingdom, with an issue forseen in the first quarter of next year. The sukuk will be marketed by a governmental agency or a state fund.

Sukuk will fund the new $7.2 billion airport project that is anticipated to issue in Jeddah within two months, inspite of a four-week delay of works related to the project. The statement came from head of the General Authority of Civil Aviation in Saudi Arabia, Prince Fahd bin Abdullah bin Mohammed al-Saud.
He also added that there are plans to change the General Authority of Civil Aviation to a stock-holding company and it will constitute four companies, specializing in four departments including international airports, domestic airports, air navigation, technology transfer and information.

It seems that the private sector funding arm of the IDB Group, is entering a new strategy to take its financing directly to its constituencies and to make its financing impact more on the real economy through the generation of employment and promoting growth.
This contains opening regional offices; setting up two new departments at the ICD; launching more Ijara (leasing companies) in diverse markets such as Albania, Saudi Arabia and Algeria; establishing SME investment funds including a SR1 billion fund for Saudi Arabia; and establishing a mortgage finance company in Saudi Arabia in anticipation of the long-awaited mortgage law.

It appears that the Public Investment Fund (PIF) authorized SR4 billion financing facility for the Qasr Khozam development project of Dar Al-Arkan Real-Estate Development Company.
Tadawul website stated that this funding will contribute to the project by increasing the speed of the development operations and pushing ahead to the next phase of sending evacuation notifications, the compensation and transfer of ownership of the properties located in the project area.

Saudi Aramco Total Refining and Petrochemicals Company stated that it has gathered $1 billion for its 400,000 barrel per day refinery project by selling an Islamic bond.
It added that sukuk is 3.5 times oversubscribed and matures in about 14 years.

The Second Annual Islamic Finance Forum will gather investors, borrowers and regulators in the same place to accomplish a better understanding of existing instruments of Islamic Finance and to find answers to problems encountered frequently in the course of doing business.
The forum delegates is amde of representatives from the Embassies of UAE, Malaysia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Russia, Kyrgyzstan and other countries.

Egypt has renewed interest in the growing sector of Islamic banking and finance in an effort to rebuild the economy of the country using internal methods of financing.
Part of the country's pursuit will be to launch a sovereign Sukuk, or bond, program within months. It would be Egypt's first sovereign Sukuk, ahead of country states including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Jordan aditionally mature markets such as Great Britain and France.

At the recent International Takaful Summit 2011 the experts from Takaful stated that they expect to reach $12 billion by the end of this year.
Ernst & Young think that emerging markets will be the key actors leading Takaful’s growth.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Malaysia are currently the top three Takaful markets. They are followed by c, Bangladesh, Sudan, and Pakistan.

A recent study by Barclays Wealth shows that 80% of Saudi HNWIs view commodities as a safe investment proposition, a far greater proportion than any other market included in the 13th volume of the Wealth insights report titled “Risk and Rules: The Role of Control in Financial Decision Making.”
The report has its grounds on a global survey of more than 2,000 HNWIs, and furnishes an in-depth examination of wealthy investors from a behavioural finance perspective.

DinarStandard™ publicized a listing of 50 Leading Business Schools of the OIC member countries. The listing reveales how OIC based Business Schools are giving leading regional employers access to top talent from within their own neighborhoods with unique expertise in Islamic finance, social entrepreneurship and innovation management.
Some of the insights presented in the listing are:
- Accreditation: Eight B-Schools from the list are AACSB accredited (The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.) AACSB is generally regarded as the standard for MBA programs (all US top 20 MBA programs have AACSB accreditation.)
- Geographic breakdown: B-Schools from 16 countries are represented on the list. Malaysia has the highest representation with 8 B-Schools on the list. This is followed by 6 each from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia.
- Most of the programs are English language based and 47 of the 50 on the list offer full-time MBA program.

TV journalist Riz Khan has revealed the role of the Islamic Development Bank in mobilizing local talent and resources to boost the development of member countries. He added that the bank should present itself in a better light so that people would appreciate its activities in order to give people a better perspective about what IDB is doing.

Because of the strict rules of Islamic finance, many countries have avoided the worst of the 2008 economic meltdown. Now officials in the Russian republic of Tatarstan are hoping that Islamic finance can help them attract direct investment from Muslim nations around the world.
Delegates from as far afield as Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates were welcomed last week in a summit on Islamic finance in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan.

Capital Intelligence (CI) has lowered the Financial Strength Rating (FSR) of Bank AlJazira (BAJ), based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to 'BBB' from 'BBB+'. The bank has now a stable outlook.
At the end of 2010, the Bank's total staff was 1,616.

Qatar and three other GCC countries including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and UAE are ssen as four of the top 10 countries in the world with the highest density ultra-wealthy households.
According to the study, “ultra-high-net-worth” (UHNW) households or those with more than $100m in AuM, are mostly situated in Saudi Arabia registering 18 per 100,000 households.
Qatar, Kuwait and UAE also made it to the top ten list in terms of the highest proportion of millionaire household by market with 8.9 percent, 8.5 percent and 2.6 percent millionaire households, respectively.

In order to increase the Shariah-compliant banking assets by 35 percent this year, Indonesia's Foreign Ministry and central bank are seeking investment from the Persian Gulf.
Mulya Siregar, the Jakarta-based director of Islamic services at Bank Indonesia, announced that it is possible that the delegation is going to meet officials in the Middle East as soon as this month, with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait the most likely destinations.

In the path of rebuilding its once dominant financial services sector, Ireland aims to become the home of Islamic finance in Europe.
The taoiseach, Enda Kenny, stated that the Irish tax laws and financial regulations are now sharia-compliant. It seems that the government had recently signed double-taxation agreements with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

A new study reveals that for its population, Saudi Arabia has the highest proportion of "hyper-rich" households in the world. The study also reveals the fact that Dubai's financial services industry is reaping rewards from wealthy investors from Saudi Arabia.
Kuwait and the UAE were among the top 10 countries worldwide on the number of millionaires per capital.

Barwa Bank and National Petroleum Services Group (NPS) made an agreement to refinance an existing syndication and support its expansion and working capital. All this will be worth QR529m.
NPS group provides drilling and well services to customers in the oil, gas and petrochemical industries in the Middle East, North Africa, Far East, and Europe.
Its state-of-the-art equipment and sectorial services are embracing Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Syria, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Libya, and Iraq.

The last and final day of JEF 2011 included a prolific discussion on Islamic banking and finance with Sheikh Saleh Kamel, as a keynote speaker. Governor of SAGIA HE Amr Al Dabbagh shed light on what Saudi's Investment plans for the next 5 years.
Sheikh Saleh called for the unification of Fatwa Authorities at banks. He highlighted the importance of a managing entity to ensure that Islamic transactions are viably controlled and stressed need for proper understanding of its true meaning for proper application of Islamic Finance.

Bahrain braced for more protests Monday as Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states reportedly prepared to send troops to help restore order in the strategic kingdom.
The Financial Harbour business complex was blocked off by protesters a day after more than 200 people were injured there in clashes between riot police and demonstrators.
It was the worst day of violence in the tiny Gulf kingdom since seven people were killed at the start of anti-regime unrest in mid-February.