IslamicFinance.de

Difficult funding in Europe is making Middle East issuers to tap the still-liquid Islamic finance markets for funds.
Dubai-based Emirates Islamic Bank issued a $500 million, five-year Islamic bond with a yield of 4.718%, while Abu Dhabi-based First Gulf Bank sold a $500 million, five-year sukuk with a yield of 4.046%.
Moreover, Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation stated it plans to launch a government-guaranteed sukuk to pay for a new terminal at Jeddah airport, and Dubai-based Islamic mortgage company Tamweel announced a five-year, $300 million sukuk.
Majid Al Futtaim recently started a $1 billion Islamic bond program, while Doha Bank, Bahrain's Al Baraka Banking Group, Emirates Telecommunications Co. of the United Arab Emirates and Abu Dhabi National Energy Co., among others, could all be looking to issue Islamic debt this year.

PT Asuransi Takaful Indonesia is searching for IDR1tr ($110m) of premiums next year, which would enact a whopping increase of 173.97% over 2011. In order to succeed the firm would have to add another 4,000 sales agents in addition to the 5,700 it already has.
PT Asuransi Takaful Indonesia also hopes to secure 500,000 customers through bancaTakaful channels and a further one million from corporate insurance.

AmTakaful has finally registered with Bank Negara Malaysia allowing it to start selling family Takaful products in the country.
Late last year The Islamic Globe reported on the signing of the shareholder’s agreement between Friends Life and AMMB Holdings.
The license for the JV was issued in 2010 after Malaysia’s 2009 announcement of the liberalization of its financial sector.

Dubai Bank Kenya has launched two Shari’ah compliant accounts, one aimed at low income earners, the other at higher income earners as it looks to satisfy the insatiable request for Islamic banking products in Kenya.
Dubai Bank is among around half a dozen conventional commercial banks in Kenya that have opened up Islamic finance windows in order to lock-in their existing Muslim customers, discouraging them from shifting their loyalty to the two fully fledged Islamic banks in Kenya: First Community Bank and the Gulf African Bank.

Malaysia’s corporate Sukuk market has abandoned the blocks in 2012, shows the data collated by Zawya’s Sukuk monitor. The data added that $5.6bn of corporate Sukuk were issued in 2011, a shade behind the $6.4bn of corporate Sukuk issued in 2010 but surpassing the $2.5bn issued in 2009.
The vibrancy of the corporate Sukuk market in Malaysia has been split into an active and well-subscribed sovereign and quasi-sovereign market. Coupled with the efforts of the government of Malaysia and the governor of the Central Bank, Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz, has seen Malaysia become the prime global Sukuk market.

UM Financial Inc and UM Capital Inc the receiver, Grant Thornton, is still continuing to reclaim $1.9 m in gold paid to the financial manager of Multicultural Consultancy Canada, Joseph Adam.
The mystery of the missing gold has moved 5,700 miles away to Egypt where Adam told the receiver through his lawyer that he gave the gold to unnamed scholars before the court ordered its return.

The upturn in the global Sukuk market that has been forseen for the past few years doesn't seem to happen – but for all the wrong reasons. Nowadays corporates and banks are issuing because they need the money.
Citi, Emirates NBD Capital, HSBC, NBAD, RBS and Standard Chartered have all been secured in to advise on the five-year Reg S, dollar-denominated transaction, which could be priced at 350bps over midprice swaps. Fitch has given an A+ anticipated rating and Moody’s has given an A3 with negative outlook.
Bank Muamalat Indonesia is also planning to launch $140m worth of Sukuk in the first half of 2012 with both an Indonesian rupiah subordinated Sukuk and a $50m dollar-denominated senior tranche.

Kenya has blocked the licensing of new Takaful companies until a suitable law to manage them is completed. This gives Kenya’s existing Takaful firms the opportunity to grow unrestrained by new competition. But the regulator’s strategy risks losing its position as the leading IF hub in East Africa to neighbors Tanzania and Uganda, who have put no such restrictions on new local and foreign firms entering their markets.
At present Kenya’s insurance law does not admit Takaful as a standalone product, although the law empowers the IRA to launch ad hoc regulations authorizing individual operators on a case-by-case basis to sell Takaful products. The insurance law also does not permit companies to invest in offshore assets, locking out Kenyan Takaful entities from established capital markets in the Middle East and Asia.

Middle East and Malaysia are anticipated to deliver a major spurt in global sukuk issuance in 2012 to an estimated $44 billion, up 66 % on 2011.
Mohammed Dawood, managing director of Islamic global markets, Europe, Middle East and Africa for HSBC Amanah, stated that the dramatic increase in sukuk issuance has been activated by Islamic bonds’ remarkable performance amid the global meltdown.
He added that investors favour sukuk because it has been less explosive than conventional issuances, especially in the last four months of 2011.

Goldman Sachs' controversial $2 billion Islamic bond programme faced a fresh challenge as it appeared that at least two scholars named as potential approvers had not even seen the prospectus.
Asim Khan, an adviser to Goldman on the issue which needs approval from sharia scholars to be continued, confirmed media reports that three of the eight scholars listed as potential approvers had not responded to requests to support the issue, but he added that their lack of co-operation had no bearing on its sharia credentials. The three who had not responded are Daud Bakar, Sheikh Abdullah Bin Sulaiman Al Manea and Mohamed Ali Elgari.

Azerbaijani leasing company Ansar Leasing plans to raise portfolio up to $22 million in 2012. The statement came from Ceyhun Naghiyev, the company’s CEO.
He added that the comapny has at this point 350 valid contracts, having the majority of the portfolio accounts for leasing of real estate, vehicles, construction machinery, equipment.

Dubai's Tamweel has launched a $300 million five-year sukuk.
The transaction is guaranteed by majority shareholder Dubai Islamic Bank and comes after a series of roadshows which took place before year-end. No pricing guidance was presented in the document.

Tadhamon Capital seems to have reached an agreement with UK developer Watkin Jones for joint ownership of Athena Hall.
The Athena Hall was cultivated by Watkin Jones in 2010 and is part of a new university campus benefiting from a five-year rental guarantee across the whole property and a 30-year nomination agreement with University Campus Suffolk.
The co-arrangers for the GBP26.7 million ($41.3 million) transaction were Tadhamon and Apache Capital Partners. The transaction will distribute a quarterly net cash yield of 8 per cent per annum to investors.

MAYBANK Investment Bank Bhd (Maybank IB) wants to use the acquisition of Singapore’s banking franchise, Kim Eng Holdings, as a springboard to become a regional financial powerhouse.
The company now has operations in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, India, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia as well as in London and New York.
Maybank IB is focusing at this moment on establishing and expanding its line of business – investment banking and advisory, retail equities, institutional equities, derivatives and asset management – in its home markets, which are Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia.

Gulf Finance House has announced that the Tunis Financial Harbour has started the prequalification process for prospective contractors.
This comes after an announcement made by the Government of Tunisia in support of the TFH project, allocating Tunisian Dinar 50 million to the completion of major and strategic infrastructure works in relation to access and roads ?to TFH.
Included in the master plan are a variety of residential and leisure facilities including a marina, a residential complex with luxurious villas and an 18-hole championship golf course.

Sedco Capital is launching its first annual investor forum for asset allocation. The title of the event is "Alternative Approaches to Asset Allocation — Strategic, Tactical and Dynamic." Its purpose is to underline the dynamic process of establishing an appropriate asset allocation mix, in addition to explaining how this process plays a key role in determining a portfolio's overall risk and return.
Two experts will highlight and introduce the various asset allocation investment options, based on the three alternative approaches to asset allocation, whether it is strategic, tactical or dynamic: Michel Meert, a senior investment consultant at Towers Watson and Robert Parker, a senior adviser to Credit Suisse.

Banks in the United Arab Emirates may choose to refinance more than $3 billion of bonds due this year should pricing remain at current levels, as they search to extend the average maturity of their debt.
UAE banks have about $3.49 billion of bonds and sukuk maturing in 2012, according to data gathered by Bloomberg. This data also shows that Profit at UAE banks is starting to recover from the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, which curbed lending and forced them to take provisions against some of Dubai’s government-related entities.
Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC sold $500 million of five-year dollar-denominated sukuk in November.

SEDCO Holding plans to expand its investments in the Kingdom market. Dr. Adnan Soufi, CEO of SEDCO Holding, stated that SEDCO is looking for investments of above USD 20 million that give control or significant minority rights with the ability to influence the decision-making process through board participation.
He added that SEDCO's immediate focus for acquisitions would be in the Kingdom, preferably in defense and healthcare sectors.

It is possible that Emirates NBD will attract funds to the emirate’s first sukuk sale by a bank since 2007, with debt priced at a 150 basis-point discount to the government’s Islamic bond.
It seems that the lender’s Sharia-compliant unit is likely to attract investors with returns as low as 275 basis points above midswaps, or about 4 %.

Islamic finance banking options are progressively being seen as a viable alternative to traditional banking services in Africa and are growing to found not only the African Islamic community but all those searching for an interest-free banking alternative.
Key speakers from Nigeria, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia will join leading South African experts from ABSA, alBaraka Bank, KPMG and other financial institutions in the Islamic Finance Africa Conference that will take place on 21 - 24 February 2012 in South Africa.