IslamicFinance.de

Nakheel has pushed the issuance of AED1bn ($272m) of Islamic bonds to its trade contractors after bank account details of some of its creditors were found to be defective.
The developer has inquired the 30 trade creditors to resubmit their account details to continue with the second AED1bn tranche.
Nakheel offered creditors repayment of 40 % cash and the remaining 60 % in the form of an Islamic bond, or sukuk, at a profit rate of 10 %.

Saturna Capital Corporation fullfills 25 years of Amana Income Fund, that has now reached $1.3 billion. The sister fund Amana Growth is the largest such fund at $1.9 billion in assets and is also managed by Saturna.
Amana Income's 25-year run is rare in the US mutual fund industry.
The Amana Income Fund has been given three Lipper Best Fund Awards: for the three-year period ended 31 December 2006, among 180 equity income funds; and for the three-year and five-year periods ended 31 December 2007, among 198 and 135 equity income funds.
The Fund has also welcomed five Failaka Islamic Fund awards in various categories over the past few years: three Best US Islamic Fund awards in 2008 (sweeping the one-, three- and five-year periods); Best Global Equity Fund in 2009 (for the three-year period); and Best Global Equity Fund again in 2010 (for the five-year period).

Mefcom Capital Markets together with UK-based merchant bank Beaufort will supply various cross-border financial services to corporates and other investor classes. Furthermore, they will arrange Sharia- compliant investment products and plans to give the investors access to markets in India, Mid-East, the UK and Europe.
Mefcom-Beufort would provide its clients services allied to cross-border corporate advisory and due diligence work, brand franchising and international licensing transactions, listing and capital raising activities, private equity, investor roadshows, wealth management and stock broking and more others.

Banks from Japan to Bahrain are aiming to open offices in Malaysia to take advantage of the growth in Islamic finance assets in the world’s biggest sukuk market.
Mizuho Financial Group Inc has applied for a licence to offer foreign-currency Syariah-compliant services in the country. An aproximatly equal licence was given to Bahrain’s Elaf Bank B.S.C. in June.

Dr Nabeel Al-Mannae is the new Independent Non-Executive Chairman and Director of Kuwait Finance House (Malaysia) Berhad (KFH Malaysia).
Dr Nabeel has a PhD in Economics from the University of Miami, Florida, Masters of Arts (Economics) from Florida International University and a Degree in Commerce (Economics) from the Kuwait University.

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service (S&P) has the strong oppinion that Turkey's Islamic banks could persist recent strong growth if they can cultivate stronger ties with their international owners and create a sustainable brand image.
Besides the growth of the total sector assets accounting for about five % of total system assets, this sector has also encountered other developments like: A law conferring tax neutrality on Sukuk products;A $100 million debut Sukuk by Kuveyt Türk (not rated); the launch of several Shari’ah-compliant funds; and The creation of a domestic index of Shari’ah-compliant banks and companies by the Istanbul Stock Exchange.

It is possible that the Accounting & Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions will launch 35 Shariah standards for Islamic institutions in 2012.
Mohammed Nedal Alchaar stated that the organization carried in-depth research for Shariah and auditing standards and guidelines, which are anticipated to be finalized next year.

Amana Takaful (Maldives) Private Limited is progressing with their plans of getting listed in the Maldives Stock Exchange (MSE).
The MSE revealed that the company aims to offer shares for subscription on the 20th of this month. The firm is going to launch 800, 000 ordinary shares in 25 share parcels. The prospectus showed that the applications shall be made for a minimum of 25 shares or multiples of 25 shares.

The Gulf credit market finds himself in a comparatively strong position to weather volatility in global markets. That is because of the fact that their external trade patterns are more related to Asia and the rich hydrocarbon resources provide large current account surpluses.
As a conclusion, one can say that the Gulf , although not immune to, is protected from shocks of the world economy.

The economic growth in many Gulf countries has signified that an ever increasing number of Muslims and non-Muslims are looking to invest their wealth in a Shariah compliant manner.
Noticing the need for more and more awareness about these principles, universities and institutions in Dubai have introduced various courses to cater to the increasing demand.
The Canadian University of Dubai (CUD) is issuing an MBA in Islamic Banking – the only UAE accredited university degree of its kind to exist in the Middle East — this year at NAJAH Education and Careers exhibition in Abu Dhabi that will take place from October 18 to 20.

After the full redemption of Bank Muamalat's RM250 million Islamic Subordinated Bonds, RAM Ratings has eliminated the A3 rating on the Islamic Subordinated Bond and will no longer have any rating obligations on the debt facility.

Zardarzi NGO for Markets for Afghan Artisans supports a group of commission agents that are collecting garments from homeworkers and selling them to stallholders in the bazaars.
The organisation offers training in business, marketing and accounting.

Shariah assets worlwide are estimated to reach $900 billion to $1 trillion, which is three times the size of China's mutual fund asset base. It is expected that it expands to $4 trillion to $5 trillion by 2015.
The positive fact for asset managers is that this money currently has few places to go.
In some markets with large Muslim populations, the request for investment products based on Islamic law, or Shariah, exceed supply. In India, for example, about 50 per cent of the 160 million Muslims were found to be excluded from the financial sector.

Sarasin-Alpen LLC, Oman, is a subsidiary of the private bank, Bank Sarasin & Co Ltd, Switzerland. Capital Market Authority approved that the bank markets Islamic securities, products and services to its clientele, along with its existing advisory services in private banking.
Sarasin-Alpen also influences the existing Investment Banking business of its associate, Alpen Capital LLC (Oman). Sarasin Alpen Group also has offices in Bahrain, India, Qatar and UAE.

Impressive growth has been a delimiting characteristic of the ETF industry over the last several years, as both the number of products and aggregate asset totals have skyrocketed.
Many of the new ETF ideas that have appeared in recent years have been tremendous successes.
The current landscape of the ETF industry reveals a number of different strategies that tried to gain traction with investors:
1. Faith-Based Investing Strikes Out
2. Target Retirement Date ETFs Struggle
3. FocusShares: Slow Out Of The Gates

It seems that Pakistan is planning to take advantage of 36% annual growth in the nation’s Islamic banking assets by resuming sales of sukuk to lenders.

Mizuho Financial Group Inc. applied for an Islamic banking permit in Malaysia.
The bank is beginning the business with 61 bankers in Kuala Lumpur and wants to hire more as the operation expands. The statement came from Keizo Ohashi, chairman of the subsidiary.
Malaysia is giving out nine financial services licenses to overseas companies as it tries to boost banking industry competition amid record economic gains.

Gulf Finance House established a net loss of $11.23 million in the second quarter due to higher finance expenses and the impact of exchange rates.
Hisham Al Rayes, chief investment officer at GFH, stated that they are expecting a larger contribution to the income from our subsidiaries and associates, particularly Khaleeji Commercial Bank and G Capital.

Indonesia calculates to sell dollar-denominated Islamic bonds by the end of December. This would be the second sale of the securities in two years. The country is looking to Persian Gulf investors to obtain the debt.
Rahmat Waluyanto, director general of the debt management office at the Ministry of Finance, stated that they are aming for Middle East investors to buy their global Islamic bonds.
Agus Martowardojo, Finance Minister, revealed that the government had planned to collect as much as $1 billion from global sukuk sales by the end of September.

Sakana Holistic Housing Solutions and Khaleeji Commercial Bank will work together in a Commodity Murabaha financing facility worth$10.6m (BD4m) over a four year period.The Commodity Murabaha will be operating for working capital by Sakana.