IslamicFinance.de

According to Standard & Poor’s, profitability of the GCC takaful industry is expected to remain relatively weak during the current year and the year ahead despite an impressive 20% year-on-year growth gross premiums in 2014 and 2015. Most takaful players are still relatively small compared with their conventional peers. Their shorter track records and less-diverse books of business put them at a disadvantage now that the falling oil price and stricter regulation are hitting GCC insurance markets. Including Saudi Arabia, the GCC’s Islamic insurance market generated an estimated pretax surplus of more than $260 million in 2015. But the takaful sector in the remaining GCC states generated a combined net loss of about $5 million in 2015 and net losses surged to about $11 million during the first six months in 2016.

King Abdullah Port (KAP) will add new terminals after securing a $720m Islamic bank loan to finance the planned second phase development of Saudi Arabia’s first fully privately owned port. The strategically positioned Red Sea port unveiled the SAR 2.7bn ($720m) murabaha facility, with a tenure of 14 years, from Arab National Bank and Saudi Arabia British Bank. KAP has quickly established itself as a serious alternative to historic Jeddah Islamic Port which previously handled the bulk of Saudi Arabia’s cargo. Once complete, KAP will be able to handle 20m teu, 1.5m vehicles and 15 million tons of clean bulk cargo annually.

Emaar Properties and Kuwait’s Burgan Bank raised $1.25 billion (Dh4.59 billion) from bond sales. Emaar sold $750 million of 10-year Islamic securities, pricing them at 225 basis points over the benchmark midswap rate. Burgan Bank raised $500 million from a sale of five-year dollar securities that will carry a spread of 215 basis points over midswaps. Corporate bond sales are picking up amid a rush of sovereign issuance in the oil-exporting region. Saudi Arabia is expected to raise at least $10 billion in October from its first offering of international securities.

Moody's announced that Al Rajhi Bank's dominant Islamic retail franchise will continue to drive a strong financial performance into 2017. Despite pressure on the Saudi economy from lower oil prices, Al Rahji's retail focus delivers solid margins and asset quality. Moody's analyst Nitish Bhojnagarwala said Al Rajhi's Islamic retail portfolio drives higher financing yields and stronger margins than its peers both in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC). Coupled with a modest cost base and relatively lower provisioning, this generated a solid return on assets of 2.5% for the first six months of 2016. Furthermore, strong profits, combined with solid retention rate, provide healthy internal capital generation for the bank, which had a tangible common equity ratio of 19.8% as of June 2016.

SEDCO Capital has joined the RFI Foundation as an industry member. SEDCO brings a strong commitment to responsible finance as a Shari'ah compliant investment manager. SEDCO Capital offers services in asset management, including asset allocation, real estate, private equity, public equity, liquidity instruments, agriculture, timber, and commodities that conform to Shari'ah. According to CEO Blake Goud, the activities of the RFI Foundation will support greater convergence between Islamic and traditional responsible finance in the coming years.

Emaar Properties has mandated Standard Chartered Bank as Sole Global Coordinator of its new US dollar Sukuk. Bank ABC, Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD Capital, First Gulf Bank, Mashreq, National Bank of Aub Dhabi, Noor Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and Union National Bank are mandated as Joint Lead Managers to arrange investor meetings in Asia, the Middle East and Europe commencing on 4 September 2016. USD 2 billion Trust Certificate Issuance Programme may follow subject to market conditions. FCA/ICMA stabilization applies.

Dubai-based Emirates Islamic Bank has priced a $250 million tap of an existing Islamic bond issued in May. The tap was priced at 170 basis points over midswaps, the order book was worth $706 million. The 'new' deal is a copy of an existing bond with the same terms and conditions. Emirates Islamic's tap came off a $750 million five-year sukuk issued on May 23. That deal was priced at 220 bps over midswaps and carried a coupon of 3.542 percent. Chief Executive Jamal bin Ghalaita said the cash would support the bank's long-term growth and development plans. The new offering was arranged by Bank ABC, Dubai Islamic Bank, EMCAP and Standard Chartered.

Saudi Arabia's Bank Al Bilad priced an Islamic bond issue worth 2 billion riyals ($533 million) at 200 basis points above the three-month Saudi interbank offered rate. The sukuk have a tenor of 10 years, with the bank having the right to call the bond at the end of the fifth year. They were sold through a private placement. Bank Al Bilad said the raised funds would support its capital base in line with Basel III standards.

Saudi Arabian construction firm Abdullah Abdul Mohsin Al Khodari and Sons has renewed an existing 132 million riyal (Dh129.2 million, $35.2 million) Islamic credit facility with Samba Financial Group. The facility will provide bonding commitments as well as capital and working capital requirements for projects and general business. Credit limits for projects covered by the facility will range from 36 to 60 months. Khodari has also won a 69 million riyal contract from the kingdom’s Ministry of Environment, Water & Agriculture for the maintenance of water networks. The financial impact of the project is expected to start in the third quarter.

Bahrain Islamic Bank is seeking to sell about 82m dinars (£166m) of unproductive assets such as land and shares as part of a five-year plan to boost growth. The lender sold 14m dinars-worth of these assets in the first half and plans the sale of a similar amount in the remainder of the year. S&P Global Ratings downgraded Bahrain in February because its vulnerability to slumping oil prices has increased since 2009. Fitch Ratings expects Bahrain’s general government debt to rise to almost 80% of GDP this year, from 62% in 2015. According to CEO Hassan Jarrar, Bahrain Islamic Bank plans to boost revenue by 20 to 25% annually, achieve a return on equity of 15% to 16% and cut its cost-to-income ratio to mid-40% from 60% over two years.

Moody’s has upgraded Masraf Al Rayan’s long term issuer ratings to A1 from A2. Counterparty Risk Assessment is changed to Aa3 from A1. The outlook on the long-term ratings has changed to stable from positive. The upgrade of Masraf Al Rayan’s ratings reflects continued business diversification as a result of growth and profitability of the UK subsidiary. Moody's expects these diversification trends to continue as the bank’s UK subsidiary grows further. The rating agency also expects that Masraf Al Rayan will maintain strong capital ratios, as healthy internal capital generation supports the needs of future asset growth.

The General Council for Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions (CIBAFI) has announced the schedule of its Technical Workshops on Product Development for Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs). The workshops will start on August 30 and will be organized in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Sudan. The three-day Technical Workshops aim to provide participants with hands on technical knowledge and skills pertaining to product development, with a focus on Islamic financial services. CIBAFI, as the voice of the industry, aims to provide platforms such as these to develop human capital and bring industry professionals together.

Emirates Islamic, the sharia-compliant arm of Dubai's largest bank Emirates NBD (ENBD), has laid off more than 100 people to adjust to a cooler economy. Growth in much of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has slowed this year because of low oil prices. Earlier this year, Emirates Islamic cut around 200 jobs. Most of the latest jobs to go were in the department servicing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Chief Executive Shayne Nelson said the bank continued to focus on cost control. The bank had already made cuts in April when it made around 100 people redundant from its subsidiary Emirates Money to save costs. National Bank of Ras Al Khaimah said in January it would cut up to 250 jobs, while Abu Dhabi-based First Gulf Bank and the UAE operations of HSBC have reduced their headcounts since late 2015.

Sharjah Islamic Bank will begin investor meetings on Aug. 29 for a potential benchmark U.S. dollar-denominated sukuk issue. The meetings will be held in Asia and Europe and the issue would be subject to market conditions. Bank ABC, Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD Capital, HSBC, KFH Capital, Maybank, Noor Bank, QNB Capital and Standard Chartered will arrange the meetings.

According to Fitch Ratings the inclusion of sukuk in major bond indexes would be a significant boost for the product, but initiatives to harmonise standards and improve transparency remain key to its long-term development. Reuters reported that JP Morgan would include eight sovereign and corporate sukuk in various bond indexes from 31 October. This may encourage issuers to supply index-eligible sukuk and support secondary market liquidity. However, Fitch Ratings believes the sukuk market's growth rate will be determined by two factors. Firstly, product-specific initiatives around regulation of sukuk issuance, which have been noteable in some jurisdictions, but have not always been harmonised across jurisdictions. Secondly, the broader attempts to deepen the investor base and improve transparency in the relevant capital markets. Sukuk issuance from key markets in 1H16 rose 11% from a year earlier to USD21.74bn, representing 30% of total issuance. Overall, Fitch expects this year's sukuk issuance to at least match 2015 issuance of around USD32bn.

Having cleared all of its historical debts, Nakheel confirmed talks are on with banks to tap 'cheap' funds for its ongoing and future projects. But there is no intention to seek such funds through another sukuk or via a share offer. Nakheel is now completely off debts, having paid off Dh4.4 billion to trade creditors via a sukuk. It had in 2014 paid off Dh7.9 billion to its banking lenders, four years before they were due. Nakheel Chairman Ali Rashid Lootah said he is hopeful of netting a new funding agreement before the year end. The funds can come in handy with Nakheel’s existing roster of projects. This includes a mega-mall, with an estimated development cost of Dh4 billion plus.

Saudi companies willing to become public holding firms have slowed down the process, following a drop in prices of new companies listed in local share markets dealings. The forbearance of Saudi companies affected the region’s market. Saudi share market concluded the first week sessions with a slight drop and it closed at 6,212 points amid USD613.3 million (SAR2.3 billion) monetary liquidity, which is considered the least in five years. Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) continued its positive movements to enhance performance of local insurance companies.

#UAE based National Bonds has started providing financial planning tips and tools via its website. The new financial planning section offers valuable information in both Arabic and English to help customers achieve their financial objectives. Topics cover planning for retirement and children’s education, debt management, investment solutions, takaful and estate planning. In addition, the website offers practical financial planning tips on goal setting, cash management and budgeting, financial health, and the rule of 72. The portal also includes online calculators for accurately computing expenses, commitments and budgets. Mohammed Qasim Al-Ali, CEO of National Bonds, said the new online tool will save time and effort for those looking for simple and straightforward financial planning.

Al Hilal Bank's new CIO Gopi Krishnan is calling on fintech CEOs to get in touch and collaborate. Krishnan moves from another regional bank, Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB), where he was CIO since 2012. Prior to that, he was with BankMuscat International as programme director in charge of transformation, enterprise project management office and group integration. Al Hilal Bank offers Islamic banking services in the retail, corporate, wholesale, treasury and investment segments. Its core operations are underpinned by the T24 banking platform supplied by Temenos.

Bahrain-based Islamic investment bank GFH Financial Group (GFH) has signed a memorandum of understanding to buy a majority stake in Bank Al Khair. Founded in 2004, Bank Al Khair is an Islamic bank with total assets of $580.5 million as of March 2016. The deal is subject to approval by the boards of directors and shareholders of the banks, as well as completion of due diligence and regulatory approvals.