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Islam stresses on the necessity and importance of environmental protection and advocates that people should live in harmony with nature. Moreover, sustainable development, enrichment of life on earth, and optimal use of available resources are pointed out as key issues. Apart from the relationship between Allah and man, and between peoples, Islam provides guidelines on the way to deal with environment and natural resources. Islam describes the relationship of man towards the earth as that of a custodian.

According to the CEO of Amana Bank, Faizal Salieh, it is expected for the current $ 250 million of banking assets to rise to $ 1.5 billion in the coming years. About 8% of the country's population of 21.5 million people are Muslims. The strong demand for Islamic financial products comes not only from the Muslim population but from non-Muslims as well. Still at a preliminary stage, the local Islamic finance is nevertheless developing. The expected rapid growth of the local Islamic finance is attributed to the increased awareness of faith based concepts and the internalization of the financial markets.

An Islamic Corporate Social Responsibility (i-CSR) General Practice Framework for Islamic institutions is being developed by researchers at the Accounting Research Institute (ARI) of Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM). The framework aims to provide suitable guidance for Islamic institutions in comparison with mainstream CSR which is based on Western practices. The development of the i-CSR framework is part of and the ultimate goal of a research project under the Islamic finance and muamalat domain.

Egypt's Investment Minister - Osama Saleh - announced three days ago that the government discusses the issuance of sukuk in order to redress the state budget deficit. A work group is already formed. It consists of ministries of investments and finance and the Central Bank of Egypt to set Sukuk legal structure. Currently, the ministry is preparing to inaugurate projects affiliated to the public sector in different fields in Upper Egypt.

In a statement, Fitch Ratings announced that it assigned the upcoming USD3bn Perusahaan Penerbit SBSN Indonesia III's (PPSI-III) global certificates (Sukuk), due 2022, a rating of 'BBB-(EXP)'. This rating is in accordance with the expectations. Thus, Fitch's view that the cashflows supporting payment on the Sukuk constitute direct, unconditional, unsecured and general obligations of the Republic of Indonesia are confirmed.

Dana Gas, which announced inability to repay a $920 million sukuk on maturity last week, claims to have no information about any action from bondholders against the company. It is expected that creditors will stake claim to the company's assets in Egypt. In a statement by Dana, it was confirmed that the company is not aware of any enforcement actions against the company by sukukholders. They further added that discussions with the adhoc committee of sukukholders show constructive progress.

Central Bank of Libya's work on plans for the introduction of Sharia-compliant banking in the country's financial sector go on. According to Fatih Aqoub, a consultant engaged on the bank's project, rapid progress has already been made. Since January a special committee has been working on the issue and searching for best practice from other Islamic countries. Amendments to the banking laws were formulated aiming to enable Sharia banking for an interim period before separate legislation is enacted.

It was recently stated in the Financial Times that Saudi Arabia intends to lobby the UK government in November in order to set up a confidential court in London. The court is to settle multimillion pound commercial disputes coming from the Middle Eastern country. The people of Saudi Arabia hope that an arbitration centre based in London will contribute to countering investor concerns about the Saudi Arabian legal system. This way, foreign investment could be stimulated. According to Amgad Husein and John Balouziyeh from SNR Denton, the success of such an arbitration centre depends on its implementation.

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) tags Sharia-compliant companies in the bourse to attract more funds and, this way, to become part of the trillion-dollar investments of Muslims worldwide. Since investors from Mindanao have preferences regarding investment favouring Indonesia and Malaysia, the company is making a list. Hans Sicat, president of PSE, pointed out that investors' money amounting to more than trillion dollars could be going into Sharia-compliant companies. According to expectations, the list is to be released next year.

Significant growth in the Islamic asset management industry was observed over the past ten years. Starting with structuring and launching of funds, it has developed to a more comprehensive wealth management service. However, the industry has not set its focus on the definition of a suitable asset allocation framework for Islamic investments yet. With the increase of the allocation to sukuk, the selected use of Shariah-compliant derivatives and a risk parity approach to asset allocation can become the foundation for a more effective Islamic portfolio management.

Almarai Co, dairy and food producer in Saudi Arabia, has planned the issuance of the second tranche of its riyal-denominated sukuk programme in the coming months. The sukuk is directed towards private investors who are residents of the Kingdom. The first tranche, which was issued in March, was able to raise 1 billion riyals ($266.6 million). Thus, the deal was 4.7 times oversubscribed. The sukuk programme aims to help finance the company's $4.2 billion investment programme to expand its business between 2013 to 2017.

Sukuk sells as high as RM5.3bil are planned by the Finance Ministry aiminig to help the nation’s loss-making carrier buy new aircraft. The sukuk will be under a 20-year programme. Turus Pesawat Sdn Bhd will be responsible for selling the notes, starting marketing this week. The government will purchase six Airbus A380s and two A330s worth RM5.3bil for Malaysian Airlines (MAS). By expanding its fleet, MAS hopes to win back business from AirAsia Bhd.

The jump of Bahrain's sukuk in October resulted in the yield reaching a record and standing out from the neighbour countries. In October, the sukuk fell 65 basis points, or 0.65 percentage point. This is the biggest drop since the start of the trade in March 2010. According to the HSBC/Nasdaq Dubai GCC US Dollar Sukuk Index, this drop got ahead of a 21 basis-point decline to 2.96% in the average yield on sukuk in the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Tilal Development Company turns to Capital Market Authority (CMA) for raising funds by the country's first sukuk issue. According to Abdullah bin Salem Al Salmi, executive president of CMA, they are ready to grant Tilal their approval as soon as the latter are ready with a plan. Al Salmi further added that Islamic financial instruments like sukuk are necessary for Islamic banks in order to invest their deposits. A lack of Islamic debt instruments could result in a deposit growth much higher than the anticipated growth in terms of assets which would make deposit investment very difficult.

A new draft of the guidelines on capital adequacy for Islamic banks and the risk management of takaful were released by the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB). The IFSB is responsible for global guidelines for Islamic finance, despite the fact that national financial regulators determine the way guidelines are implemented. The initial guidelines on capital adequacy were released in December 2005 and were based on Basel II standards. The new stricter Basel III made amendments to the guidelines necessary.

Almarai Co, a producer of dairy and food products, announced its intentions of issuing the second tranche of a riyal-denominated sukuk programme. The issuance is to be made in the coming months and is directed towards private investors. The first tranche of the programme brought the company 1 billion riyals ($266.6 million). The investors in the second tranche have to be residents of the Kingdom. The sukuk is to contribute to financing Almarai's $4.2 billion investment programme, the goal of which is the expansion of the company's business between 2013 to 2017.

The half yearly results of Burj Bank Limited (Burj) for the period until the end of June 2012 were made public. The bank registered profit before tax as high as Rs 147 million. The announcement is a reflection of the bank's turnaround in terms of continuous earning for the first two quarters of this year. Furthermore, the growth of the total deposits is 57% reaching Rs 32 billion in the first half of the year. The profits are seen as remarkable progress, especially having in mind the significant challenges the bank has faced in the period.

Recently, Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) announced a flat third-quarter net profit. Even though there was a big jump in provisioning, the bank exceeded all forecasts of the analysts. During the three months until September 30, DIB made 298.5 million dirhams ($81.3m). Compared to that, the same period last year brought a profit of 298m dirhams. The 43% jump in provisions did not affect the steady quarterly profits. The bank's chairman, Mohammed Al Shaibani, pointed out that DIB's performance was notable for delivering strong results while meantime sticking to its conservative approach to provisioning.

the new Chairman of the Securities Commission of Malaysia - Ranjit Ajit Singh - said he wanted to see the emergence of an internationalized single Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) asset class which would be able to compete with other major regional or global asset classes. He further added that internationalization of the Malaysian capital market as well as of ASEAN as a single asset class is necessary. The capital markets of all the member countries will profit from better and wider access due to success of ASEAN as a single asset class on the global stage.

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Dana Gas could not manage to repay a $920 million sukuk on its maturity date. It is suggested that holders of the bond will stake claim to the extensive Egyptian assets of the company. According to an announcement by Dana Gas, they are in talks with bondholders aiming to amend and extend the terms of the sukuk.

Read more on: http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=340947