IslamicFinance.de

Gatehouse Bank says it is targeting significant growth in the Shariah-compliant home finance market with a new customer service centre in Milton Keynes. The Bank says its new strategy will focus more on home finance plans in addition to its current buy-to-let products and development/build-to-rent division. Charles Haresnape, CEO of Gatehouse Bank, says the bank plans to grow all areas of the business but Shariah-compliant home finance will be a particular focus. Haresnape believes this is a hugely untapped market and one that, being fundamentally ethical, will resonate with Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

Al Rayan Bank has started marketing Tolkien Funding Sukuk No. 1, the first UK RMBS issue to be structured on Islamic finance principles. Islamic banks can't access central bank facilities, which means the wholesale markets are fuelling the firm's ambitious expansion plans.

A London High Court judge again ruled in favour of creditors in a dispute over whether Dana Gas must repay $700mln sukuk. Judge George Leggatt rejected an attempt by the company to overturn his decision last November that the purchase undertaking behind the sukuk was valid and enforceable. There was no immediate comment from Dana.

Al Rayan Bank has mandated banks to raise 250 million pounds ($352 million) via sukuk, using a residential mortgage-backed securitisation. Al Rayan has appointed Standard Chartered and Masraf Al Rayan to arrange investor meetings. The sukuk would help fund Al Rayan's ongoing efforts to expand into commercial real estate, private banking and financing for small- and medium-sized businesses. The portfolio would consist of Home Purchase Plans secured by residential properties, with a current pool balance of approximately 300 million pounds. The sukuk would securitise contracts known as diminishing musharakah with ijara finance, akin to reducing co-ownership arrangements, secured by residential properties located in England and Wales.

It is well established that good corporate governance strengthens institutions and financial sectors, and in so
doing contributes to building strong economies and economic growth.

Deficiencies in corporate governance were among the factors that contributed to the global financial crisis
(GFC) of 2007–08. As a result, global standard setters such as the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision
(BCBS) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have been updating and
strengthening their guidelines on good governance practices.

The Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB), which sets standards for Islamic financial institutions, published its
Guiding Principles on Corporate Governance in 2006 as its standard IFSB-3. The Principles address, within the
context of corporate governance, the distinct features of Islamic banks, such as the different relationship that
they have with some of their stakeholders.

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London-based Gatehouse Bank has expanded its residential home finance team with two new appointments. Umar Ali joins Gatehouse Bank as Head of Home Finance after five years at Al Rayan Bank. Junaid Sarwar has been appointed as a London-based Business Development Manager. Junaid also joins after six years at Al Rayan Bank and has held previous roles at Santander and Barclays Bank. Paul Stockwell, Gatehouse Bank’s CCO, said the bank managed to build a strong team of experienced specialists as it expands into the residential home finance sector.

London based Gatehouse Bank has partnered with Kuwait based Blueprint Real Estate Company to offer finance to expats looking to purchase property in the UK. Gatehouse Bank says this forms part of the strategy of its move into the home finance business. At the same time, Gatehouse Bank announced an expansion to its residential home finance team. Umar Ali has been appointed as head of home finance, while Junaid Sarwar has joined as a business development manager.

The First Investor (TFI) Qatar, a subsidiary of Barwa Bank Group has acquired a new office building in Frankfurt. The asset is another unique blend to TFI Euro Income Fund, which was launched in 2017 with sharia compliant stature. Europe continues to provide excellent investment and business environments given low inflation and low interest rate regime. TFI is keen to pursue its investment strategy with the aim to help clients achieve their objectives in a very challenging business environment. By that, TFI will soon launch another UK Income Fund and a US Income Fund together with many investment opportunities during 2018.

The UK's Department of International Trade has announced the launch of a wide-ranging campaign in the Middle East and the Gulf to encourage investment in the UK. London is considered the largest market for Islamic finance outside the Islamic world and has more than 20 banks providing Islamic financial services. According to the Dubai-based Media and Communications Center, Britain ranks 22nd out of 124 countries in the world that use Islamic banking, placing it first in Europe and fourth among non-Muslim majority countries after Singapore, Sri Lanka and South Africa. Supportive government policies created a tax and regulatory framework aimed at expanding the Islamic finance market, including the elimination of double taxation, the extension of Islamic mortgage tax and the reform of debt arrangements. The United Kingdom is the first sovereign Western country to issue sovereign sukuk. In September, London also hosted the fourth annual meeting of the Global Islamic Finance and Investment Group (GIFIG) to discuss inter-state cooperation.

Green Dome Financial Services has launched the UK's first Sharia-compliant home insurance policy. The company has begun selling policies that meet Islamic restrictions on uncertainty and usury, or unreasonably high interest rates, while falling within the scope of the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority.

BEP Systems has added Gatehouse Bank to its roster of financiers using their customisable Apprivo2 system. Gatehouse Bank will use the new system to help make their business more efficient. For Gatehouse Bank, BEP have re-configured their systems to comply with Shariah requirements when dealing with home purchase plans. Charles Haresnape, CEO of Gatehouse Bank, said it was vital that the software house understood Shariah requirements and BEP Systems delivered excellent solutions across home purchase plans and buy-to-let financing. Chris Little, managing director of BEP Systems, said Gatehouse Bank had seen the advantages Apprivo2 and strategic advantages would be delivered to fit their business model. He added that Apprivo2 was the fastest growing system in the UK serving specialist finance providers.

The Gulf Islamic Investments, a Islamic financial services company based in the UAE, has revealed the acquisition of nearly one million square feet of logistics facilities on behalf of its investors, at the price of 144 million US-Dollar. The two state of the art logistics centres, are located in Dortmund Germany, and serves as key logistics centre of Amazon supplying goods to 29 other facilities. These newly built facilities are leased out to Amazon on a long-term lease that cannot be cancelled with regular rental uplifts linked to Germany CPI.

Dana Gas announced it will appeal against a British court’s ruling on its $700 million sukuk, after a UAE court lifted an injunction preventing it from participating in the British proceedings. Dana previously said the sukuk was invalid under UAE law and refused to repay holders of the sukuk which matured at the end of October. The energy producer sought a declaration on the sukuk’s lawfulness at courts in the UAE and Britain. Last month, a British court ruled in favour of Dana creditors, deciding the purchase undertaking was valid and enforceable. Dana has said it aimed to appeal against the ruling because it could not take part in proceedings. A hearing in Sharjah on the validity of the sukuk under UAE law is scheduled for Dec. 25.

Dana Gas plans to appeal the UK court ruling on $700mn of its outstanding sukuk. According to Dana Gas, the decision by the London court is flawed because the UAE-based company was barred from participating in the proceedings due to an injunction at home. Judge George Leggatt said the English law contracts are enforceable in the case. Dana was challenging a provision called purchase undertaking, which allowed the trustee on behalf of investors to force Dana to buy them out of the agreement at par. Dana shares fell as much as 5.6% on the Abu Dhabi stock market on Sunday. The court ruling puts investors one step closer to resolving a dispute over the sukuk that highlighted one of the Islamic finance industry’s weak spots.

A High Court judge in London ruled in favour of creditors in a case regarding the validity of the purchase undertaking for about $700 million of sukuk issued by Dana Gas. The idea that Dana Gas has been able to assert for the past five months that its own sukuk were non-sharia-compliant has struck many observers as unusual. Judge George Leggatt said that Dana Gas' challenges to the validity and enforceability of the purchase undertaking were unfounded and declared the purchase undertaking for Dana's sukuk as valid and enforceable.

Dave Fishwick, the founder of Burnley Savings and Loans, put millions of pounds behind the belief that there’s a demand for ethical banking. He aims to link local savers with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in need of finance, run by a locally based bank manager who makes lending decisions based on deep personal knowledge, rather than an algorithm. Fishwick believes that ethical banks are needed: small, simple, honest banks run by the community to serve the community. While SMEs often can’t get loans from major banks, Conrad Ford, CEO of Funding Options, notes that a wave of challenger banks are offering help. They include Metro Bank, Civilised Bank and Greater London Mutual, all with an emphasis on integration with a defined community or locality.

Dana Gas share prices fell 4.17% following Friday’s English High Court ruling against Dana Gas and in favour of bondholders. Danas said it plans to appeal the decision by the London court that declared the company’s $700 million sukuk valid and enforceable. Friday’s ruling was made in Dana Gas’s absence from the court. Dana Gas had earlier refused to repay debt owed to investors for two mudaraba sukuk worth $350 million each. The latest ruling does not mean that Dana Gas has to pay bondholders just yet, with another hearing in a UAE court scheduled for December 25.

Shepherd and Wedderburn has completed the Shariah-compliant refinancing of high-value office accommodation in Aberdeen. The properties, which total 159,170 sq ft of floor space, are fully let to the oil and gas service provider Petrofac as its North Sea office headquarters and NHS Scotland. The funding was completed by way of a commodity murabaha facility from an established international bank. Peter Alderdice, a senior associate at Shepherd and Wedderburn, said the team was pleased to have used its expertise in Islamic finance to help secure the refinancing of two of the largest commercial properties in the city.

An English High Court judge has ruled in favour of Dana Gas’s bondholders, reported the Financial Times.

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The CEO of Al Rayan Bank, Sultan Choudhury, has received his Order of the British Empire (OBE) from Prince William. Choudhury was appointed OBE in the Birthday Honours of Queen Elizabeth II, in recognition of his services to Islamic finance. Choudhury was part of the management team that obtained Western Europe’s first authorised Islamic banking licence in 2004. He has since grown the Bank to become the UK’s largest Islamic bank. Al Rayan Bank offers the largest Sharia compliant product range in the UK. The Bank currently has more than more than 80,000 customers throughout the UK, more than a quarter of which it estimates to be non-Muslim.