IslamicFinance.de

It is still discussed how to salvage the takeover of the Islamic Bank of Britain based in Birmingham. However, it is a fact that no offer for the business has been forthcoming. According to the IBB, Islamic bank Masraf Al Rayan appears to be a possible bidder following to collapse of takeover talks between the IBB and majority shareholder Qatar International Islamic Bank (QIIB). If MAR acquires IBB, QIIB will sell their 88.41% of the issued share capital of the Birmingham operation to MAR.

According to the Development Commission of Almaty Regional Financial Center of Kazakhstan's National Bank, the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has allocated $25 million for Kazakhstan farmers. In 11 regions of the country, a series of training seminars aiming to teach Islamic financing methods for personnel of branches and representative offices have started. Professor Adalet Dzhabiyev, Director of Badr Finance & Investment, conducts the training.

Fitch Ratings claims that after Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank's (ADIB) hybrid Tier 1 Sukuk further UAE banks are likely to follow their example and issue Basel III-compliant bonds. Both conventional and Shari’ah-compliant banks are expected to issue Tier 1 products in the coming year. Fitch also noted that relatively high levels of capital are a necessity for banks in the Gulf region in order to deal with the difficulties in the operating environment. Moreover, hybrid Tier 1 instruments are believed to be a cost-effective means of accessing a wider investor base.

A strategic agreement aiming to provide financial means for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) was signed by Kuwait Finance House - Bahrain (KFH-Bahrain) and Tamkeen. The agreement says that companies in Bahrain will have access to low-cost Islamic financing solutions which will be provided by KFH-Bahrain. Tamkeen will be providing 50% subsidy in order to help these companies to obtain the necessary funds for their development. According to Mr. Mahmood Hashem Al-Kooheji, Chief Executive of Tamkeen, the Enterprise Financing Programme is crucial institutionalising the concept of SME lending in the country and it is also contributing to the expansion of the customer base of Tamkeen's partner banks in this programme.

Recently, the Islamic Banking Summit Africa (IBSA) started at the Djibouti Palace Kempinski, Djibouti. The main purpose of the event is to make use of the Africa opportunity in Islamic finance. More than 200 leading figures in the international Islamic banking and finance industry took part in the discussions on the topic. A special address by Ismail Omar Guelleh, President of Djibouti, and a keynote address by Djama M. Haid, Governor of the Central Bank of Djibouti, were included in the summit. Key challenges for Islamic banking in Africa were analyzed and discussed at length.

According to an announcement by alizz islamic bank SAOG, the Initial Public Offering worth RO 40.8 million had great success and was oversubscribed. Investors from category 1 had applied for up to 100,000 shares and received all of their application amounts. Category 2 investors had applied for more than 100,100 shares. They have been allotted 83.95% of their application amounts. It is planned for the constitutive general meeting of the bank to be held on November 20, 2012.

Ratings Intelligence conducted an indepth study on the quality of Shariah equity screening. The authors of the paper are Dr. Mushtaq Shah (CEO), Dr. Nabhan Al-Nabhan (chairman) and Abdul Hadi Shaikh (head of equity screening and audit). It discusses the different ways results are obtained for a company under review by adopting different research approaches. A further topic are possibilities and ways to improve the quality of Shariah screening. An interactive, knowledge-based and Shariah board guided approach to Shariah equity screening is advocated by the research.

The new web portal that launched in Egypt claims to be the first crowd funding service in the country subject to the principles of Islamic finance. The portal enables a huge number of investors to become shareholders in a project. In order to that, they will need to contribute only very small amounts of money and will not have to go through stock exchange. Co-founder of the portal Shehab Marzban explains that micro-projects and larger projects are funded by banks. However, projects worth between $50,000 and $300,000 need to find another source of funding. The portal is aimed to bridge this gap.

Today the certification institute Ethica launched an e-book on practical, usable information about Islamic finance. The 700 pages of the book cover a number of topics from sample Islamic finance contracts, over 1,000+ scholar-approved Q&As, to the entire "Meezan Bank Guide to Islamic Banking," study notes to Ethica's award-winning Certified Islamic Finance Executive (CIFE) program, etc. At the end of the e-book there is an easy-to-use subject index. The emphasis lies on entrepreneurship.

A new internet portal, which was recently launched in Egypt, is said to be the first crowd funding service in the country compliant with the principles of Islamic finance. Through cloud funding, numerous investors will be able to participate as shareholders in a project by contributing very small amounts of money. Going through a stock exchange will not be necessary. According to Shehab Marzban, co-founder of shekra.com, the portal is aimed at smaller projects needing between $50,000 and $300,000 and for which there are no banks taking care of funding. The idea of the website is to bridge this gap and to gather creative people an investors in order to fund ideas and projects.

Omani real estate firm Tilal Development Company has persistently been asking the Capital Market Authority (CMA) for approval to raise funds by issuing a sukuk. According to Abdullah bin Salem Al Salmi - executive president of CMA - as soon as Tilal are ready with a plan, CMA are ready to grant them approval for raising money by means of sukuk. Currently, the next step is for Tilal to submit a formal application for the issue. CMA are encouraging companies to float sukuk issues. The only thing necessary for bringing regulation for sukuk is a minor amendment in the Capital Market Law.

Dana Gas has eventually agreed upon restructuring its sukuk worth $920 million. Thus, it will potentially avert the seizure of its assets in Egypt. According to Dana's statement on Wednesday, the company intends to pay its sukuk holders a mix of cash and new bonds which will be split between a sukuk and a convertible. There is no information on what proportion would be in cash. This solution to Dana's default is believed to serve best the interests of all stakeholders.

In cooperation with Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank Group, Egyptian National Bank for Development (NBD) signed up to Standard Chartered Bank's Islamic Euro Nostro Account. Using this Nostro product, NBD will be able to earn Shariah-compliant profits on its account balances at Standard Chartered Bank Germany Branch in Frankfurt. The agreement was made at SIBOS 2012 in Osaka, Japan. The main feature of the Standard Chartered Saadiq EUR Nostro Account is that it utilises a Shariah-compliant account sweep facility. Available EUR balance in NBD's Saadiq clearing account will be used for investment using the Islamic finance mode of Murabaha at the end of each business day.

Dear Reader,

The German language book on Islamic finance by the Editor of IslamicFinance.de and Dr Wackerbeck from Booz Consultants is now translated to Chinese.

Please find the biographical information below:

Authors: Michael Gassner / Philipp Wackerbeck
Title: Islamic Finance – Islam-gerechte Finanzanlagen und
Finanzierungen
ISBN number: 978-7-5139-0217-5
PUBLISHER: Beijing - Democracy and Construction Press
Pre-Publication Date: 2012.7

Full biographical details: http://db.lib.bua.edu.cn/asord/asorditem.php?asord_marc_no=0001344540

Orders: http://www.amazon.cn/%E4%BC%8A%E6%96%AF%E5%85%B0%E9%87%91%E8%9E%8D-%E7%B...

Book review about the German language original: http://www.rpi-virtuell.net/workspace/24686AD5-936C-476D-9EA0-65E2968590...

Best regards,

Michael Gassner

In conclusion of the two-day Muscat International Islamic Finance Forum a set of key recommendations was compiled by the organisers. The recommendations are a result of the discussions among the participants which included senior industry figures, global investors, takaful operators, bankers, as well as top Shariah scholars. The recommendations include the following areas: regulatory framework, Shariah, asset liability management (ALM), in-country value (development of real economic sectors & SME), asset / fund management, education, takaful, sukuk, and media & awareness.

Safa Investment Services - a global Islamic asset manager in in the Gulf region - was launched by Investor for Securities Company. The grand ceremony was held in Four Seasons Hotel, Al Riyadh, on the 8th of October 2012. According to the manager of Safa Investment Services, Mr. John Sandwick, professionally managed assets around the world are worth nearly $80 trillion. Muslims are in possession of about $3 trillion of them. Surprisingly, a huge extent of the money was not invested compliant with Shariah principles. It is a goal of Safa to provide Sharia-compliant investing opportunities and to produces profits larger than those of conventional investing.

Eman Al-Shemmari, the head of Nuclear Medicine Sections at the Ministry of Health, expressed his admiration for Kuwait Finance House (KFH) and its actions to sponsor the Nuclear Medicine International Week. The event took place under the auspices of the Minister of Health Ali Al-Obaidi and included a number of scientific lectures in the mentioned medical field. The lectures were held in several hospitals in Kuwait. According to Al-Shemmari, KFH is largely responsible for the success of the event and the enrichment of the medical cadres and public.

The expectations of Sedco Capital are that its assets under management will double during the next five years due to the company's expansion into new. The expansion plans are driven by the increasing demand from Shariah-compliant investors. The investment firm established an entity in Luxembourg in July 2012 aiming to expand its reach in the Shariah-compliant private equity, real estate and commodities space. Unlike most sharia-compliant firms, which operate on a regional basis, Sedco wants to go global.

According to expectations, the measures introduced to bring the rules on takaful insurance up to date and expand them will be of help to the efforts of the segment to make inroads into the market share. The first Islamic policy writer opened in 1989, which, compared to other countries in the Gulf region and Asia, is very early. However, although Bahrain was working on becoming an insurance and takaful centre in the region, it is still necessary to strengthen its position. This could be accomplished by developing the Kingdom's human resources pool through advanced training programmes.

UBS recently closed the bank account of Islamic Relief. Because of nervousness about counter-terrorist regulations, the charity organisation is under constant scrutiny by other banks. Incoming as well as outgoing transactions are stopped on a daily basis. It is yet not known whether this is a temporary measure or a permanent one. Since 9/11, Islamic Relief and other similar charities have been object of high scrutiny and had to explain themselves at every juncture.