IslamicFinance.de

A court ordered Al Ain A leading Islamic bank to pay a building materials company Dh9.854 million that the bank had deducted from the company’s account without legal cause.
The appealing party, Al Samah Building Material Establishment, filed an appeal against the initial ruling explaining that the bank had refused to issue a statement of the company’s transactions and murabahat (Islamic profits), and asked the court to assign a new expert whose decision would be binding.

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) has acted as Mandated Lead Arranger for the $32 million structured Ijara facility to fund the acquisition of up to six Offshore Supply Vessels (OSVs) for Waha Offshore Marine Services, a unit of ADX-listed Waha Capital.
The financing represents an important milestone for Waha Maritime in its expansion in the Offshore Supply Vessel (OSV) sector.

Kuwait Finance House agreed to First Investment Co.’s rescheduling plan.
The rescheduling plan involves issuing 90 million dinars ($320 million) in 5-year bonds, according to Al-Qabas, which didn’t name the other lenders or state the total debt.

With one-fifth of the world’s total population identifying themselves as Muslim, and with the consideration that they are active participants in world markets, it is imperative to include the Muslim community in business affairs and look for ways to reach out to them.
By making fair trade opportunities relevant to the Muslim community, it is also essential to encourage them to take a bigger part in these opportunities as they are in line with the Islamic belief system and further facilitates their goal of helping humanity.

The dawn of the new Hijrah year and 2011 could either signify more of the same as in the last year or a leap toward the first steps to taking the global Islamic finance industry to the next level as Malaysian Prime Minister Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak's government says it aspires to do.
In the case of Ireland, the Bank of Ireland indeed did apply the stress testing to the major Irish banks who incidentally passed the stress tests with flying colors, only to spectacularly fail shortly afterward and precipitating a multinational bail out of the Irish banking system with the help of the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the UK Treasury, who even had the audacity to borrow money from the markets and lend it to the Irish at a higher margin, albeit over a period of 25 years.

One of the more bad aspects of the credit crunch is that after years of easy credit banks are unable, or unwilling, to lend to businesses at the point in the economic cycle where private sector growth is desperately wanted. The lack of bank lending is exacerbated by the UK government’s measures, which will put more pressure on private sector firms struggling for a financial breathing space.
While much of this activity is independent of the government, ministers recognise the importance of small to medium-sized enterprises and start-ups, particularly in strategically important areas. As a result, the government is the £150m cornerstone investor in the UK Innovation Investment Fund.

Arabian Gulf borrowers are selling ringgit-denominated Islamic bonds at a record pace in Malaysia to raise funds for expansion and take advantage of demand in the world’s biggest market for Shariah-compliant bonds.
Dubai’s government is “likely” to sell bonds next year and a Malaysian offering is a possibility.

Barwa Real Estate Company QSC and Gazprombank OJSC announced yesterday the first closing of the Shariah compliant, Barwa Gazprombank Russia Real Estate Fund. The Fund represents the first collaboration between Barwa and Gazprombank and the two companies will seed the Fund with $75m capital each.
The First Investor QSCC (TFI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Barwa Bank, will contribute $2m into the Fund.

By introducing the Sharia-compliant products, the Union Insurance Company expects revenue to increase by 32 per cent this year.
Mr Edirisinghe,the finance manager at Union Insurance, confirmed a statement posted on the ADX website, which forecast a 32 per cent rise in revenue this year.

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) published last week the draft of its latest Shariah consultation on Islamic financial products, the "Concept Paper of Shariah Parameter Reference 5: Istisna Contract (SPR5)". SPR5 is aimed at becoming the true source of reference on the nature and features of the Istisna contract for the Islamic financial services industry and to facilitate the consistent implementation of the contract in the Malaysian financial market.

Asian Islamic financial institutions are attracting more female executives and scholars to fill a shortage of talent, setting a precedent for companies in the Middle East.
In November Malaysia’s Shariah Advisory Council appointed a second female scholar to its 11-member board. Indonesia has six women on its panel of 35 experts.

Work on the feasibility study on the sukuk origination is set to start this month, after the President Rustam Minnikhanov of the Russian republic of Tatarstan has visited Malaysia in December and the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Kuala Lumpur between the Tatarstan government, the local IFC Linova, Malaysia's Amanah Raya Berhad Group and Kuwait Finance House Malaysia (KFH Malaysia).

The nation’s Islamic capital market is seen as being intelligently positioned within the evolving Islamic financial-services industry.
As one of the panel members at the 17th Annual World Islamic Banking Conference 2010 (WIBC 2010) in Manama, Bahrain, Zakariya cited two key factors that must be taken into consideration when tackling legal constraints namely the competency of the civil courts in hearing Islamic banking and finance cases, as well as the adherence to a recognised body such as the Syariah Advisory Council of Bank Negara, or Securities Commission of Malaysia.

Ben Verlong’s thriller “Takiye: Allah’?n Yolunda” a Dutch-Turkish joint production dealt with a major investment scam that lost many people’s life savings and the disappearance of investors along with huge amounts of money. The film starred Erhan Emre as a man who trusts his money in an Islamic investment, convincing those around him to do the same, only to be left empty-handed after the company goes bankrupt with the executives nowhere in sight.

The story is based on a major investment scam, which attracted substantial amounts in Germany from Turkish migrants.

Indonesia's finance ministry aims to issue 38.5 trillion rupiah of government bonds in the first quarter of 2011.
This doesn't include retail bonds, retail Islamic bonds and dollar-denominated bonds.

Global Islamic real estate consultancy Alpha1Estates International states that the new decade will usher in a maturing phase of the real estate sector of Makkah and Madinah, leading to a lucrative boom in the Holy Cities.
The company said that the coming one would focus more on building non-physical infrastructure aimed at convenience - for the pilgrim (resident and visitor) and investor (domestic, regional and global).

Islamic insurance has been steadily growing as a "Halal" alternative for commercial insurance that some believe to be illegal and risky.
Facebook is one of the innovative ways of Egypt to marketing. Recent as it is in the Egyptian liberal market, the Islamic laws-compliant version of insurance seems to be slowly but surely growing.

The merger of Faysal Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is likely to be completed by January 1, 2011.
They said Faysal Bank would take over all 70 branches of RBS from January 1.

Nakheel, the real-estate unit of Dubai government-owned conglomerate Dubai World, said the Dubai Financial Support Fund has given it enough money to repay its $750 million Islamic bond, or Sukuk, that matures on Jan. 16.

Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) announced today that it has made some strategic appointments to support its growth and expansion strategy. Under the new management restructure, Dr. Adnan Chilwan has been appointed Deputy CEO - Chief of Consumer and Wholesale Banking, while Mohammed Al Nahdi has been appointed Deputy CEO - Chief Operating Officer.
The Business Group - Consumer and Wholesale Banking - headed by Dr. Chilwan, will be responsible for all the business functions of the bank, i.e. Consumer Banking, Corporate Banking, Real Estate and Contracting and Treasury. The Support Group, led by Al Nahdi, will be responsible for support functions like Central Operations, Information Technology, Legal, Compliance, Administration and Collections.