IslamicFinance.de

Conglomerate Dubai Investments could look to gather up to 1 billion dirhams ($272.3 million) in 2012 through sale of a sukuk to finance the expansion of its manufacturing units and repay debt.
The company is already in discussions with an Italian lender for a $200 million loan and a sukuk issue will only be taken into consideration if the loan deal does not go through. The statement came from Chief Executive Khalid bin Kalban.
Some of the funds from the sukuk will be used for the expansion of Emirates Float Glass factory, the conglomerate’s glass manufacturing unit.

The National Bank for Development (NBD) together with Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) revealed its 2011 financial results, which showed positive indicators despite the circumstances the Egyptian economy faced during the past year.
Nevine Loutfy, Managing Director and CEO of NBD, stated that NBD's achievements during 2011 confirmed the strong and superior performance of the bank's employees, which was shown in the significant growth in both assets and liabilities, in addition to increasing the bank's market share and reducing the provisions gap.

It seems that the Tunisian government has assembled a working group that will analyze how to develop Islamic finance in the country and that will look at the country's legal framework.
The group contains representatives from the central bank, stock exchange and private sector institutions including Bahrain-based Al Baraka Banking Group.

On 10 May 2012 BaFin will hold its second conference on Islamic financial services in Frankfurt. The agenda includes sharia-compliant capital market products and the opportunities and challenges they present.

The presenters at the conference will be leading international representatives of financial supervisory authorities, universities and market participants. The event features a mix of panels and will be held in English.

BaFin hosted its first conference on Islamic finance in autumn 2009 and received a very positive response.

As the number of participants is limited, please fill out the expression of interest form if you would like to attend the conference. We will inform you as soon as possible whether your registration was successful.

Agenda

Time: 10 May 2012 (10 am to 6 pm)

A. Welcome and First Overview

B. Panel I: Islamic Funds
Sharia-compliant Funds
Sharia-compliant Derivatives
Sharia-compliant Share Indices

C. Panel II: Sukuk and Securitization
Key Aspects of Sukuk
Key Aspects of Securitization

D. Panel III: Special Aspects of Islamic Finance
Market Potential of Islamic Finance
Aspects and Challenges of Taxation

The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) and the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies (OCIS) determined the two-day third SC-OCIS Roundtable on Islamic Finance, a closed-door forum for Islamic finance experts, syariah advisers and scholars from around the world, begining at May 12 here.
Raja Dr Nazrin Shah, Raja Muda of Perak and the Malaysia International Islamic Financial Centre financial ambassador, will officiat the roundtable. The focal point will be the "Solutions for Liquidity Management" in Islamic finance with the purpose of identifying pathways to strengthen the international sukuk market to address infrastructure constraints and problems relating to global connectivity and to develop overall market integration.

Middle East bond sales are departing to a record start this year after political unrest that swept through some nations in 2011 decreased and as concern wanished that Europe’s debt crisis would disturb the request for regional debt.
Regional governments and companies raised $10.1bn in bonds in until now in 2012. A $4bn sukuk sale in Saudi Arabia, the biggest Arab economy, conducted a 55% rise in sales from the year-ago period.
Mohieddine Kronfol, Dubai-based chief investment officer for global sukuk and Middle East and North Africa fixed income at Franklin Templeton Investments, noted that they anticipate issuance to increase in the next 12 to 24 months, particularly with banks having to work harder to secure funding and extend credit to the private sector.

Matthew Austin was appointed general manager of Gulf Holding Company (GHC) and its subsidiaries in a move addressed to push forward stalled projects.
Mr Austin will begin the process of reviewing and restructuring the company's operations with the purpose of resuming work on the projects, especially Villamar @ the Harbour. It was restructured to broaden short-term liabilities and bring new funding partners on board.
The project's main contractor Al Hamad signed a memorandum of understanding, presenting it part ownership in the towers.

Emirates NBD from Dubai has asked Fitch Ratings and Moody's Investors Service to withdraw their ratings on Dubai Bank PJSC.
After the accomplishment of the takeover of Dubai Bank by Emirates NBD, all capital and medium-term funding claims for Dubai Bank are controlled under the Group umbrella and accordingly credit ratings are no longer required for this entity.

Social Finance, Ltd. created a bond with social impact. Background on this project is provided free for download and could be a good base for innovation in the Islamic finance industry:

"In September 2010, our sister organization, Social Finance, Ltd., launched the world’s first Social Impact Bond in the United Kingdom. Targeted at reducing prison recidivism, the Peterborough pilot generated world-wide interest in the potential of this innovative financial instrument. We established Social Finance, Inc. in January 2011, to bring the Social Impact Bond to the United States. Since our founding, we have been collaborating with government, investors, nonprofit organizations, and thought leaders on how Social Impact Bonds might realign incentives for delivering social outcomes and augment public funding and philanthropy to support our collective efforts to improve the lives of individuals and communities in need.

Dear Reader,

IslamicFinance.de is privately funded for many years. Now, for the first time, you have the possibility to make a contribution, from one Dollar upwards!

The technical details, and the money transfer via paypal is organised by Kapipal a new online fundraising tool:

http://www.kapipal.com/islamicfinance

On the blog I gave some more thoughts about Islamic finance media for those interested: http://www.islamicfinance.de/?q=node/3454

Please also note: The fundraising action has a deadline, so act today, not tomorrow and tell your friends about it!

All donors who will leave a message will be listed in the article, which follows after closure of the fundraising period.

I am happy to meet you in person either on 19th March in Milano (http://www.islamicfinance.de/?q=node/3396) or on 10th May in Frankfurt (http://www.islamicfinance.de/?q=BAFINII) at the respective Islamic finance conference.

Wa at Taufiq min Allah, all the best,

Michael Saleh Gassner

Aiming a better standard of living, Cambodia's Muslims are hoping of introducing the Islamic finance to the Buddhist country to lure investments from the Muslims-majority states in the Middle East and Asia.
Cambodian Muslims hope that by inserting Islamic finance, already booming in Malaysia and Middle Eastern countries, they could rule trade with those countries and attract investment from Islamic banks in the region.
This trade would improve the living standards for Combodian Muslims, who generally have a lower standard of living than their Khmer countrymen.

Green Faith got together over 100 people to debate religiously inspired eco-consciousness and interfaith activism around environmental issues.
The evening began with a short video clip and discussion by UW-Madison Associate Professor Anna M. Gade on the tradition of Muslims conserving natural resources in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. She underlined models for embracing inter-religious cooperation that draw on the Qur’an, values that are highly influential in Indonesia’s religiously pluralistic society nowadays.

The government is thinking about up sizing the issuance of the nation’s fourth ever retail Islamic debt papers (sukuk) after seeing strong request from local individual investors.
About 14,000 investors have ordered Rp 11.1 trillion worth of the Islamic bonds within the first six days of the offering up to Monday, already nearing selling agents’ more than Rp 13 trillion commitment.
Many agents have revised their targets. The agents composed of 13 banks and 11 securities firms, including Bank Central Asia, Bank Mandiri, Citibank, OCBC NISP, Danareksa Sekuritas and Trimegah Securities.

The Islamic Bank has lost aproximatly 48 billion dollars only last year.
According to a report published by Saudi Al-Eqtisadiah (The Economy) newspaper, revealing AUE banks to such scrutiny and interrogations represented a distortion to the image of the banking system in the country.
The American Department of Treasury has launched a law earlier in June allowing the president to penalize foreign banks that lead financial transactions to buying oil and petroleum products from the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The research note by Alan Robertson, CEO, Jones Lang LaSalle MENA, prooves that Middle Eastern investors have been strong net buyers in overseas markets in recent years.
Considering the capital transactions across the world's commercial real estate markets, 2011 was a significantly more active year than 2010.
During the year 2011, Middle Eastern investors were able to take advantage of continued request for real estate in many global markets to get rid of assets they had purchased in recent years and repatriate capital to their local economies.

Tokio Marine Saudi Arabia appointed Alinma Investment as lead manager and underwriter for the initial public offering (IPO) of 30 percent of its stocks (20,000,000 shares).
The share capital amount of the company will be SR200,000,000. The offer period will extend from March 19 until March 25.
Alinma Bank, Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co. Ltd., SABIC Industrial Investments Co. Ltd., Saudi Establishment for Trade and Distribution, Sheikh Abdullah Ben Mohammed Ben Abdul Aziz Al Romaizan and Geant Saudi Ltd. are the major shareholders.

The Human Welfare Foundation will now provide loans in the form of interest-free microfinance to the poor across the country including Hyderabad, making microfinance a more humane approach.
Besides the interest-free loans, a support system for human welfare involving a network of activities focusing on healthcare, protection of civil rights, women's empowerment, disaster management and encouraging strict adherence to ethics in professions such as medicine is the main need.

Mr. John Robertson Wright was appointed Non-Executive Director of EIIB by the Board of EIIB.
Mr. Wright is a career Banker with important experience in UK and international markets including assignments in India, Sri Lanka, West Africa, Canada, Hong Kong and the United States. Before this appointment he was Chief Executive of Oman International Bank for 7 years, Chief Executive of the Northern and National Irish Banks in Ireland for 5 years, Chief Executive of the Gulf Bank in Kuwait and finally Chief Executive of Clydesdale & Yorkshire Banks prior to retirement.

It is possible that Bank Nizwa will begin its branch operations in July this year. The bank has an ambitious plan to reach in every part of the Sultanate in near future to offer Islamic banking products to citizens and residents.
The Muscat branch of the bank would be established at Shatti al Qurum and an international consultant is working on the design of the building. It appears that the bank will provide commercial banking services for both personal and corporate customers.

Almarai Co. raised 1 billion riyals ($266.6 million) through a sukuk, or Islamic bond, launched on March 7. It is the first time that Almarai has launched public debt, having started roadshows for the offering last month.
The arranger of the sukuk was HSBC Saudi Arabia.