IslamicFinance.de

France must host a sukuk issuance this year to show it is serious about Islamic finance and overcome the legal uncertainties that caused a delay to a 1 billion euro ($1.37 billion) issuance, a lawyer working on the deal Told Reuters on Wednesday. At least one French Islamic corporate bond, or sukuk, had been expected last year but was delayed by legal hurdles.

Sharia-compliant Bank of London and the Middle East (BLME) is targeting the thousands of rich Gulf residents who spend part of the year in London, to boost its private banking arm, its head told Reuters. The Bank will offer investors access to leased assets such as equipment, trucks, railway carriages and aeroplanes. The Bank's customers will invest in short-term revolving finance facilities, which allow a borrower to draw down and repay amounts for short periods throughout the life of the facility.

The launch of Europe’s first dedicated Islamic Finance and business Center at a mainstream British university, Aston Business School, which is part of Aston University in Birmingham, underlines the growing Islamic finance education industry in and out of the UK.

The El Shaarani Islamic Finance and Business Center, named after its benefactor El Shaarani, CEO of Surgi-Tech Group in Dubai, aims to establish Birmingham as the center for Islamic finance in the UK.

The global growth of Islamic finance and the UK banks’ long involvement in the sector since the early 1980s, has encouraged professional bodies, academic institutions and some private entities to set up Islamic finance courses ranging from certificates, diplomas, undergraduate, masters and post-graduate degrees in Islamic finance and economics.

“Islamic finance is, and will continue to be, an important part of the government’s overall commitment to ensuring a competitive financial services sector in the UK,” reiterated Sarah McCarthy-Fry MP, exchequer secretary to Treasury, in London at a seminar entitled “New Year — New Opportunities in Islamic Finance,” hosted by the international law firm, Norton Rose, in London recently.

This statement of intent coincides with two notable developments relevant to the European Islamic finance sector in the last two weeks or so. Firstly, the UK Treasury and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) have been working to remove barriers and uncertainty in the regulation of alternative finance investment bonds (sukuk).

Following consultation with the industry, the statutory instrument, the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 Order 2010, was sent to the House of Commons in mid-January, and the Brown government is confident that the new regulations will come into effect by the end of February. These measures, stressed McCarthy-Fry, will reduce compliance and legal costs for these instruments, and facilitate the issuance of corporate sukuk in the UK.

The United Kingdom government is deciding to issue sukuk which would:

* Diversify its investor base- not a bad prospect for an indebted country- standing a chance to attract further liquidity.

* Show it is not complacent and really means business creating a benchmark in Europe, where no significant sukuk issuance occurred, excluding a 100 million euro issuance in 2004 in German region Sachsen-Anhalt. Pre-crisis rumours had it that the UK would issue sukuk worth £2 billion in short term notes making a real statement about its Islamic finance ambitions.

* Provide help to the five stand alone Islamic banks, which are required by the market regulator to put in place liquidity buffers, consisting of government bonds or cash. Because there is no sovereign sukuk, these shining monuments to London’s superiority in Islamic finance depend on debt issued by the Islamic Development Bank.

* Encourage corporate sukuk issuance, which is not too probable without the government leading by example.

In a paradox that sums up so much about the country, Dubai recently unveiled the world’s tallest building in the midst of a crisis in the property market.

Salaam Halal insurance, part of Principle Insurance Holdings and the first independent takaful provider in the UK, has stopped accepting new business, following a failed rights issue. It is now in a ‘solvent run-off’ situation, whereby its existing polices (there are about 10,000 policyholders) will operate until expiry, when they cannot be renewed

Gatehouse Bank will launch a Shari’ah-compliant Structured Trade Finance Fund in early 2010. Parnter is the wholesale Islamic market intermediary company DDCAP. The aim of the fund is to invest capital in structured trade finance transactions.

The question was analysed by Mr John Foster of BBC where it was concluded that anything that is not prohibited under the Al-Quran and the As-Sunnah is permissible. The full news is available at the source stated below.

Arabian Business reported on 28 April that Investment Dar its proposed British bank unit 'Dar Capital' might start with capital of up to GBP 100 mn. A project study should be finished by year-end.

Chairman of Investment Dar is Adnan Al-Musallam.

Source: http://www.arabianbusiness.com/517695-dar-eyes-uk-bank-with-up-to-100-ml...

Gatehouse Bank, a subsidiary of the Kuwait-based investment firm The Securities House KSCC, has been approved as an investment bank by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and can now offer Shariah-compliant products.

David Testa is chief executive at Gatehouse.

Source: http://www.ukinvest.gov.uk/OurWorld/4029877/en-GB.html

Bank of London and the Middle East released on 14 April the appointment of Mahmoud Faruqui as Senior Advisor.

Having been involved in the Islamic finance industry for over 30 years, Mahmood has extensive experience in advising banks on Strategy, Governance and Sharia'a aspects of product structuring and documentation.

Mahmood has previously worked as Board Member/Advisor of Habib Bank, Alfaysal Investment bank, Faysal Bank, Faysal Islamic Bank of Bahrain, Dar-Al-Maal Islami (DMI) Geneva, and Habib Bank AG Zurich.

As a founder member and secretary at the Pakistan Banking Council, he played a key role in negotiating and obtaining authorised bank status for five Pakistani banks from the Bank of England.

Humphrey Percy is CEO of BLME.

Source: http://www.arabianbusiness.com/index.php?option=com_pressreleases&view=d...

Gan Yen Kuan reported on 10 April in The Edge Daily that MNRB Holdings Bhd has proposed to invest GBP 8.96 mn in the non-listed British Islamic Insurance Holdings Ltd (BIIH), being an equity stake of maximum 9.99 % based on a private placement effort. MNRB aims to diversify the business and to expand into international business and the potentially lucrative market in Europe.

MNRB is Malaysia’s largest re-insurer.

BIIH has an authorised share capital of GBP 100 mn. Its issued and paid-up share capital is GBP 4.1 mn with a share premium of GBP 42.1 mn. It is incorporated on 27 February 2006.

BIIH has two wholly owned subsidiaries, namely BIIH General Ltd (BIIG) and BIIS Ltd., both have yet to obtain permission from the UK’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) to carry out their respective business in general insurance and insurance intermediation services.

BIIH is unlisted but aims to be listed on the Alternative Investments Market in London and on one or more suitable GCC based exchanges later.

Source: http://www.theedgedaily.com/cms/content.jsp?id=com.tms.cms.article.Artic...

AME Info published a press release on 8 April that The Bank of London and The Middle East plc (BLME) announced that it has participated in USD 20 mn of Forward Lease financing to Qatar Electricity and Water Company (QEWC), for the construction of the Ras Abu Fontas A1 (RAF A1) water desalination plant to be built in the northern part of Ras Abu Fontas, Qatar. The Islamic tranche of the transaction was introduced to BLME by European Finance House, London based subdiary of Qatar Islamic Bank. Out of the total project budget of USD 600 mn, USD 150 mn is Islamic financing which is being underwritten by QIB.

Humphrey Percy is CEO of BLME. Mike Clark is CEO of European Finance House.

Source: http://www.ameinfo.com/152651.html

Malar Velaigam wrote on 25 March in Investors Chronicle about the progess of Islamic banking in UK from an investor's perspective. Only two Islamic finance companies have UK quotations, and neither of them has proved a very attractive investment so far.
 
The first Western Shariah-compliant commercial bank, the Islamic Bank of Britain (IBB). The bank floated in October 2004 at 25p a share, but now trades at half that price having hit a high of 13.7p and a low of 4.75p in the last year. It reported losses in 2005 till 2007. However, deposit basis and account numbers are growing substantially, while IBB customer base only represents 2.3 % of the 1.8 mn Muslim target market in UK yet.