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Sharjah Islamic Bank (SIB) will issue a $500 million five-year sukuk on Tuesday after strong demand helped the lender to set price guidance at lower end of initial indications. Lead arrangers released official price guidance at 3.125 percent. The sukuk has attracted strong demand, with order books seen over $2 billion at the time official guidance was released. The deal size has been capped at $500 million. Abu Dhabi's Al Hilal Bank, HSBC Holdings, Kuwait's Liquidity Management House, a unit of KFH and Standard Chartered Plc are mandated lead arrangers on the sukuk.

Ng Nam Sin, Assistant Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), pointed out that, despite the expiry of certain tax incentives, Singapore is still looking to develop the city's Islamic finance capabilities. To ensure that level playing field between Islamic finance and conventional financial products, Islamic finance activities will continue to be incentivized alongside conventional finance activities under Singapore's other existing schemes. However, others have remarked that Singapore is now lagging behind Malaysia, which is establishing itself as the major Islamic financial hub in the region.

Shareholders in Kuwait Finance House (KFH) have agreed to a 20 percent capital hike, The plans to increase its capital are part of the bank's five-year strategic plan. New shares will be issued at 100 fils ($0.35) per share plus a premium of 400 fils. KFH shares are now trading at 780 fils, down 1.27 percent on the Kuwait bourse. According to Al Watan newspaper, a capital increase could boost KFH's paid-up capital to 348.5 million dinars ($1.24 billion) from 290.4 million dinars.

Omani Islamic banks are expected to follow a comprehensive marketing approach to promote themselves as an alternative for traditional Banks. In other words, Islamic banks need to apply Sharia-compliant recent banking applications. At the meantime, they should consider the risks of financing goods and assets according to Murabaha and Musharakah basics. Islamic banks in Oman will only succeed in introducing and marketing their services/products by satisfying clients’ requirements through saving and financing means. Thus, they should start to conduct studies as well as R&D for Islamic products. Moreover, flexibility is an effective factor to successful banking processes.

Egypt-based investment bank EFG Hermes has said its merger deal with Qatari investment company QInvest is to lapse on May 3, unless it receives long-awaited approval from Egyptian regulators. If EFG does not receive a 'no objection' from the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority in the coming days, it will be difficult to implement the joint venture agreement. A spokesman for the authority said the deal was still being studied and that a decision would be announced at the right time, declining to give any details or time frame.

An unknown investor has bought almost 4 per cent of Ajman Bank. Shares were up as much as 2.6 per cent to Dh1.58 each, after a block of 38.8 million shares were traded yesterday morning. The bank did not comment on the share movement, which represents 3.8 per cent of Ajman Bank's share capital. Ajman Bank which is 25 per cent owned by the emirate's government, has frequently been at the centre of rumours that it was the takeover target of an unnamed institutional investor,

Gatehouse Bank announced its expansion in South East Asia following the acquisition of the law firm SJ Berwin's offices in London, in collaboration with a flourishing Malaysian Sovereign Wealth fund in September 2012. Richard Thomas OBE, will relinquish his current responsibilities as Chief Executive Officer and will take over a new role with the Bank to spearhead this SE Asia business expansion and operations. Mr Fahed Boodai, Chairman has been appointed as interim Chief Executive Officer.

The Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) seeks to offer rules and regulations to organize work of Islamic banks and financial institutions.It has been providing a number of organizational and supervisory criteria for auditors, central banks, takaful companies or insurance firms. Qatar Central Bank governor Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud Al-Thani is chairman of the IFSB Board. IFSB's sukuk issuance program was granted A1 rating by Standard and Poors, paving way sukuk issuance for second quarter this year.

Zakat House General Manager Abdul Qader Al-Ojail asserted that Kuwait Finance House (KFH) is known for supporting the community, and is considered to be one of the authority's main partners in charity. Al-Ojail received two cheques with a total value of KD8.8m from KFH's Chairman Mohammed Al-Khodairi, in order to financially support Zakat House charitable projects and activities. Al-Khodairi said that KFH's priority is to contribute to the success of Kuwait development projects and to serve the society, in addition to supporting projects executed by official charity institutions.

UAE's Minister of Finance called upon the Arab world to invest more than US$80 billion (Dh293.84bn) in agriculture to help to bridge a widening food gap. Without investment to increase output, the shortfall in food in the region would rise from a value of $41bn in 2010 to $89bn in 2020. Poor infrastructure, instability in parts of the region and lack of investment in scientific research were among the factors why agriculture projects in the Arab world were not achieving the targeted rises in production. In an effort to help tackle food security, officials agreed to double the capital of the Arab Authority for Agriculture Investment and Development, a multilateral lender aimed at promoting investment in agriculture.

President Mohamed Morsi has referred a controversial draft law on Islamic sukuk bonds to Al-Azhar for approval. The Shura Council approved the sukuk bond law last week, stating that it would not refer the bill to Al-Azhar for approval and sending it direct to president Morsi. The law allows the state and its related entities to issue Sharia-compliant debt both locally and internationally. The Ministry of Finance expects the first sukuk issue to take place within a couple of months and to yield $1 billion by June.

Bahrain-based Islamic investment bank, Gulf Finance House (GFH) has secured approvals from 32 syndicates for the restructuring of WestLB Murabaha facility. GFH also obtained approval from its sukuk holders to restructure its outstanding debt amounting to $105m. All debts are expected to mature in 2018 and provide a two-year grace period for the principal repayment amount.

Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) has repaid the Dh3,752,543,000 deposit, in full and well ahead of contractual maturity which it received from the Ministry of Finance in 2008. In March 2013, Dubai Islamic Bank announced the successful pricing of a US$1 billion Tier 1 Capital-eligible issuance, with a perpetual (non-call 6) maturity which will provide a significant boost to the current Tier 1 Capital ratio. For the 12 months ended December 31, 2012, DIB group reported a net profit of Dh1.19 billion, compared to Dh1.05 billion in 2011, an increase of 13 per cent while the bank continues to boast one of the best liquidity ratios (88.7% as December 2012) in the market.

Kuala Lumpur-based International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation (IILM) announced its inaugural short-term sukuk programme aimed at addressing liquidity challenges faced by Institutions that offer Islamic Financial Services. The launch of the programme is pursuant to the granting of an A-1 public rating by Standard & Poor’s Rating Services. The completion of this phase of the programme paves the way for the issuance of the IILM inaugural sukuk which is expected to take place in the second quarter 2013. The sukuk programme will be the first Shariah-compliant US dollar denominated financial instrument in the market to be issued at maturities of up to one year.

The Turkish unit of the Kuwait Finance House, Kuveyt Turk, will raise its capital by TL 960 million in the next three months and another TL 360 million will be added over the following 15 months, according to its General Manager Ufuk Uyan. Moreover, the bank is planning to issue a sukuk worth TL 100 million ($55.40 million) in September or October. Besides, Kuveyt Turk expects to open a new overseas branch in Qatar and Iraq.

Nicholas Kaiser, chairman of Saturna Capital Corp., has been managing the shariah-compliant Amana Funds which target Muslim investors in the U.S. since 1994. Mr. Káiser can't invest in companies that derive a significant part of their business from activities unacceptable to the principles of Shariah law. Another challenge is managing his cash because earning interest is prohibited. He currently holds 4.3% of the fund's assets in cash. The fund has a 10-year average annual return of 12.2%. It now has $2.2 billion in assets, and Mr. Kaiser estimates that only about 10% to 12% of investors in it are Muslim.

Great Eastern Takaful Sdn targets RM20mil of total weighted contribution from its new product, i-Great Idaman. The family Takaful term plan provides biennial cash payout combined with protection. The group expects to get about 5,000 to 6,000 customers within the one year of the launch. According to Great Eastern Takaful chief executive officer Zafri Ab Halim the target market were individuals with middle to high income. He added that the product was suitable for people who already have medical protection and are seeking for other type of offerings.

After the Arab Spring, an international but Arab-led investment plan is urgently needed to deal directly with the job shortage and promote economic stability across the region. The Arab Stabilization Plan is a private sector led policy response that envisages a multilateral economic plan. It focuses on creating jobs through fast tracked, project-based investment, achieving significant returns for investors and countries alike. However, the prospect of the private sector acting alone to restore economic growth is dim. In order to ensure a safer transition and prevent further instability and the potential for extremism, there is an urgent need for investment intervention over the medium term. Through a common regional investment platform, participating countries would be able to benefit through enhanced regional economic development, stability and security.

Tunisia's government is working alongside the Islamic Development Bank to pave the way for a 1bn dinar ($700m) sukuk sale scheduled for later this year. According to finance minister Elyes Fakhfakh, it would set a benchmark for companies seeking to tap the Islamic debt markets. He said the government would target 80 per cent external investors and 20 per cent domestic. However, the lost of the investment-grade rating, slow economic growth and bank liquidity concerns may put investors off the government’s sukuk. The country is also seeking a $1.7bn loan from the International Monetary Fund to help stabilise the economy and plans to issue US government-backed bonds.

Several airlines have indicated that they are exploring the possibilities of financing new fleet acquisitions and expansion through the issuance of sukuk or other suitable Shariah-compliant financing instruments. Bankers in the UAE and Malaysia stress that sukuk are ideal for the airline and aviation industry because of the match between the long-term nature of the assets with a regular income stream from passenger traffic. However, aviation finance industry experts emphasize that sukuk is not necessarily a better option, it is simply a different option to find a source of financing.