IslamicFinance.de

Bank Al Jazira has priced a 2 billion riyal ($533 million) sukuk issue that will boost the lender’s capital reserves. The bank priced the transaction at 190 basis points over the six-month Saudi interbank offered rate. The Islamic bond issue is structured with a ten-year lifespan but includes an option for the lender to redeem the sukuk after five years. It was arranged by GIB Capital as well as the bank’s own investment banking arm.

Offshore jurisdictions have become increasingly popular with Islamic finance institutions in the recent past. Such jurisdictions allow the hassle-free incorporation of trusts, special purpose vehicles or other financial intermediary bodies necessary to be established between parties within an Islamic finance structure. Also, offshore financial centres are usually offering services at lower costs in a favourable tax environment. The most developed in this respect are the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg and Labuan in Malaysia, as Kuala Lumpur-based International Islamic Finance Center pointed out.

Turkey is issuing $1 billion dollar-denominated sukuk after a 18-month absence from the Islamic finance market. The government is offering five-year notes at 290 basis points above the midswap rate, aiming to sell debt before the Federal Reserve acts on its stated intention to increase interest rates. Turkey has already raised $3 billion in capital markets this year, completing two-thirds of its planned borrowing program for 2016. Turkish government debt is rated Baa3 at Moody’s Investors Service, the lowest investment grade.

Kuwait's Boubyan Bank issued $250 million Perpetual Tier 1 Capital Certificates, completed May 16, the first public sukuk from a Kuwaiti bank, the first public sukuk out of Kuwait since 2007 and the world’s first public fully Basel III-compliant Tier 1 sukuk. The certificates were made available on the Irish Stock Exchange and NASDAQ Dubai. The issuance was advised by Dentons. Joint coordinators included Standard Chartered, HSBC and Boubyan, Emirates NBD Capital, Dubai Islamic Bank, KFH Capital and National Bank of Kuwait. Co-managers of the transaction were Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Ajman Bank and Noor Bank.

Russia is hoping to close deals shortly to attract Islamic banks to invest in Russia to help make up for a shortfall in international finance caused by Western sanctions. The head of Vnesheconombank Sergei Gorkov said funds invested by Islamic banks will be used for infrastructure projects in the country. He added that that Russia is expected to close its first deals to attract Islamic capital in the autumn of 2016. However, the active introduction of Islamic banking is opposed by some Russian lawmakers.

In the USD sukuk pipeline, DP World and Noor Bank have selected banks for a possible benchmark issuance. Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek mentioned plans of an issuance within 1H16. Bloomberg Malaysia Sukuk Ex-MYR Total Return (BMSXMTR) and Dow Jones Sukuk Total Return (DJSUKTXR) indices closed lower at 103.55 (-0.26%) and 159.18 (-0.44%) respectively. Malaysia’s revenue fell slightly to MYR1.54bn (-0.7%) in 2015 while income tax revenue increased by 7.8%. Turkey's unemployment rate declined to 10.9% and its government budget balance improved to TRY5.36bn in April. Indonesia’s trade balance rose to USD667m in April mainly due to the larger than expected decline in imports.

The Islamic world is sizeable market by any global standard: 1.7 billion consumers, with a birth rate growing two times the pace of the world average. Consumer spending in 2014 tallied $1.8 trillion (Dh6.6 trillion) and is slated to surge to $2.6 trillion by 2020 according to a study by Thomson Reuters. The market development is being led primarily by a handful of countries with Malaysia, the UAE and Singapore standing out. The fastest growing sectors are halal food, halal travel and leisure, the pharmaceutical and cosmetics arena and Islamic finance. But the reality is too many countries are being left behind. Poverty rates remain too high, with a quarter of the population for example in Egypt still living on less than $2 a day.

Several Omani private firms are keen to raise funds by way of sukuk after Mohammed Al Barwani Holding received approval for a OMR58 million-issue. The companies interested in issuing sukuk can avail tax concession if the special purpose vehicle for sukuk issue is registered in Oman and the issue is floated in the local market. Mohammed Al Barwani Holding's sukuk issue opened subscription on Monday either in Omani rial or dollar. So far, Oman witnessed only two sukuk issues that raised a total of OMR300 million, OMR50 million from real estate development firm Tilal Development Company and the other one a OMR250 million sovereign sukuk issue.

Kenya has a higher percentage of Christians compared to Muslims, but this country is seeing a surge in Islamic financing. According to Rahma Hassan Hersi, Managing Partner at Awal Consulting, the lack of regulations is deterring potential growth. There is a need to address this issue in tandem with the central bank. There is also very limited expertise. The penetration of Islamic finance in Kenya is estimated at 2% with a limited number of banks and insurance companies playing in that space.

In Uganda the outgoing minister of Gender and Social Development has advised commercial banks to urgently develop products for Islamic Banking. Muruli Mukasa said the parliament passed the law and the all the communities in Uganda have accepted this model of banking. The Financial Institutions Bill 2015 paved way for the introduction of three new products: Islamic Banking, Bancassurance and Agency Banking. But Bank of Uganda still has to issue regulations that will guide commercial banks on how to manage the new form of banking.

Islamic banking in #Uganda will broaden government financing options and will ease its borrowing from the private sector, through the Sukuk bonds. According to the managing director of ABL Dunamis, Abubaker Mayanja, Sukuk funding will be available for government infrastructure projects; as long as they meet sharia requirements and the funds are invested directly into the project. He said the bonds will be issued by all commercial banks, regardless of whether they are Muslim founded or not.

Emirates Islamic Bank has launched the sale of $750 million in sukuk with five years duration. Pricing for the instrument has been set at 220 basis points over midswaps after attracting orders from investors worth more than $2.2 billion. The pricing is tighter than the 225 bps over the same benchmark indicated earlier in the day, and well inside initial guidance of the 240 bps area. The issuance was arranged by Standard Chartered, Al Hilal Bank, Bank ABC, Dubai Islamic Bank, HSBC, Maybank and Noor Bank.

Noor Bank has successfully priced its debut perpetual $500 million Tier 1 capital issuance, the first issuance from UAE in 2016. The final pricing came on the back of global roadshows across Middle East, Asia and Europe with an order book crossing over $1 billion. Citi and Standard Chartered were the joint global coordinators for the issuance, whilst Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD Capital, First Gulf Bank, Noor Bank and Sharjah Islamic Bank acted as the joint lead managers for the issuance.

Saudi Arabia may need to change its currency's peg to the U.S. dollar if economic conditions shift. The riyal's peg at 3.75 to the dollar has been a cornerstone of Saudi policy since 1986. But the collapse of oil prices since 2014, which created a $100 billion state budget deficit, has fuelled speculation in financial markets. Foreign bankers said Saudi authorities had explored the idea of changing the peg in a broad review of economic policy. They concluded that a change would be counter-productive now but conceivable in the far future.

The Indonesian government is considering cutting the levy to zero for all local-currency sovereign bonds from 15% for domestic investors and 20% for international ones. According to Abas A. Jalil, CEO of Amanah Capital Group, the zero tax will definitely encourage more participation by government funds in the Indonesian sukuk market. The proposal aims to revive Islamic banking after the industry shrank to 3.5% of total financial assets in March, from 5% a year earlier. Only one Indonesian company has issued rupiah sukuk in 2016 for the equivalent of $7.3 mn compared with $5.9 bn worth of ringgit sales in Malaysia, the biggest Shariah-compliant debt market.

Bangladesh Bank did not allow Al-Arafah Islami Bank to sell 10% of its shares to the Islamic Development Bank (IDB). The deal was originally signed in March to invest about Tk 155 crore to acquire a 10% stake in Al-Arafah. Al-Arafah was supposed to issue around 11 crore fresh shares worth Tk 10 each with a premium of Tk 4, in a bid to raise its capital. The board of Al-Arafah is divided over the issue of selling a 10% stake, particularly on the issue of giving veto power to IDB. The aggrieved group had also taken the issue to court opposing the veto power.

Sharjah Islamic Bank (SIB) has successfully repaid a $400 million sukuk. The sukuk had been raised in May 2011 under challenging market circumstances. The funds raised under the sukuk were used for general corporate purposes and business expansion of SIB. The bank currently has two sukuks of $500 million outstanding which are set to mature in 2018 and 2020 respectively.

India will get its first taste of sharia-compliant banking when the Islamic Development Bank launches operations in the state of Gujarat. No date has yet been announced, but already complaints have emerged within the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. Prominent BJP politician Subramanian Swamy says Islamic banking goes against India’s principles of secularism. India's prime minister Narendra Modi visited Saudi Arabia in April and signed an extensive agreement with the bank. Under the agreement, the IDB will establish its first Indian branch in the Gujarat city of Ahmedabad and go on to open more branches in India in the future.

DP World has raised $1.2 billion in a new seven-year sukuk which is set to be listed on Nasdaq Dubai. The issue received strong investor interest and was 2x oversubscribed receiving more than $2bn in bids. The new sukuk is priced at a fixed coupon rate of 3.91% maturing in 2023, replacing over $1.1bn of the 2017 6.25% coupon sukuk. Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, Group Chairman and CEO of DP World said Nasdaq Dubai gives this new listing global visibility to position Dubai as the capital of the Islamic economy globally.

Turkish participation bank Kuveyt Turk has raised 300 million lira ($101.5 million) of Islamic bonds, and plans to regularly use public sales in the future. The 6-month deal is the largest local currency sukuk issued by Kuveyt Turk. The bank opted for a public sale to further widen its funding sources, in contrast to most other sukuk deals which are sold via private placements. Last week, the Turkish treasury mandated banks for a sovereign sukuk deal in the international markets. First, Turkiye Finans Katilim Bankasi applied to raise as much as 17 million euros via sukuk, followed by Aktif Bank who has also applied to raise up to 100 million lira via sukuk.