IslamicFinance.de

Al Baraka Banking Group has confirmed its plans to open in France, saying it will open up five branches in metropolitan France from 2011.
Press reports in France claim that Al Baraka Chief Executive Adnan Yousif confirmed the bank's intentions to establish a presence in the country. The news that Al Baraka Banking Group plans to set up in France follows two years of activity by the French authorities aimed at attracting Islamic banking institutions.
Al Baraka has selected Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered as advisers.

Jordan's first ever law covering the issuance of sovereign Islamic sukuk has been finalised and bankers and officials hope it will let the kingdom tap the fast-growing Islamic banking industry's huge pool of liquidity.
Prominent Islamic bankers, along with members of a top-level ministerial committee mandated with drafting the sukuk law, said the legislation removes legal uncertainties and would be submitted to the cabinet in as little as two weeks.
It should be passed by year end, widening Jordan's borrowing options beyond conventional public debt instruments and helping finance a growing deficit, worsened by the global downturn and a fall in foreign aid that traditionally covers budget shortfalls.
Jordan has not had special laws relating to Islamic finance, but as Islamic financing expands pressure is mounting on the monetary authorities to apply sharia compliant legislation.
Assets of the three existing Islamic banks in Jordan alone amount to around 12 percent of the total banking system and their financing accounts for over 16 percent of total credit.

Capinnova Investment Bank, the Shari'a compliant investment banking arm of BBK offered a $16.5m bridge financing facility to support the financing of a religious hospitality project in Mecca. The project consists of a hotel located 1.3 km away from the Haram.
The development is in the final stages of completion and will be the first of its kind providing Muslims worldwide an opportunity to have an interest in Mecca project. The creative structure enables foreign investors return from a hotel asset in the holy city of Mecca through investing in a Cayman Island.

After five years of searching for a mortgage in the Saudi Arabian capital, Riyadh, 28-year-old Abdulaziz Al Salem has some advice for his peers: Forget it.
Frustrated young Saudis like Al Salem could spark a lending market that Capitas Group International estimates at $32 billion a year for the next decade if the kingdom passes a mortgage law that’s been a decade in the making.
The proposed law is part of a planned overhaul of the kingdom’s home finance market, regulating all parts of the industry: from registering mortgages to allowing judges to prosecute police officers who refuse to carry out eviction orders. The changes are aimed at easing the concerns of lenders discouraged by unclear regulation that could lead to lengthy court disputes.
Saudi authorities began drafting the new property laws about a decade ago. Provisions about evictions and home foreclosures led to disagreements between the government and the Shura Council, delaying its passage for years.

Agha & Co (the Firm), a Shariah compliant legal consultancy established by Oliver Ali Agha, commenced operation in Dubai in May 2010 and is scheduled to have a formal office inauguration on October 25, 2010. Previously, Agha and Dr. Saeed Mohammed Al-Shamsi established Agha & Shamsi, an affiliated firm, in Abu Dhabi. The Firm and its affiliate are said to be the first Shariah compliant legal consultancies established globally.
Agha & Co’s strategic position in the UAE, fast becoming a major commercial hub for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), includes a network of affiliation arrangements with leading law firms both internationally.
Agha & Co’s partners have previously lead practice areas at top Am Law 50 and top tier English firms, and are well-respected in the fields of Islamic Finance, Islamic Law, Corporate (including cross-border M&A), Projects, Project Finance, Energy, Public-Private Placements (PPPs), Commercial Transactions, Capital Markets, Islamic Funds & Private Equity, Restructuring, Insurance (Takaful), Arbitration and Dispute Resolution.

Kerala offers huge potential for setting up financial institutions based on Islamic tenets, given its strong historical ties with West Asia and a large Muslim population that adheres to investment norms prescribed by Sharia. Islam prohibits giving or receiving of interest, which it categorises as usury. It does not prohibit trading and investment but advises followers to share risks. It tells the investor to share the loss, just as he would have shared the profit, in case the investment makes a loss. The West has successfully repackaged this investment process as Islamic banking. Kerala is trying to follow that path.

Indonesia is under pressure from banks to match tax breaks and product offerings announced by Malaysia last week to catch up in developing Islamic finance.
Malaysia has the largest market for sukuk and is a global hub for the Islamic finance industry that manages $1 trillion of assets. The government will cut taxes on Shariah-compliant transactions next year to promote “innovation in Islamic securities".
Indonesia failed to sell all of the government sukuk it offered in an auction on Oct. 5, even after suspending sales for two months because investors demanded higher yields than the government was willing to offer.
Malaysia in the past year has issued permits to global investors including Aberdeen Asset Management Plc and Franklin Templeton Investments to start Islamic fund management. The funds, which will invest in ringgit and non-ringgit denominated assets, will be exempt from paying taxes until 2016, according to the central bank.

Amiri S3 is Amiri Capital’s Shari'ah Screening System. The company says it is the first such system to have been issued a Fatwa on its own right. Amiri S3 is now downloadable as an application on to Blackberry phones. The application is an easy-to-use tool that allows Islamic investors worldwide to ascertain whether a particular stock can be invested in from a list of over 40,000 global stocks.

Trading in Gulf Finance House (GFH) shares were suspended on both the Bahrain Stock Exchange and the Kuwait Stock Exchange on Sunday 17 October. The investment bank will be holding its Annual General Meeting (AGM) and an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) on Sunday 31 October.
Shareholders will be asked at the AGM to approve an asset swap transaction between GFH and its Chairman Esam Janahi, whereby Janahi will transfer his entire shareholding in Khaleeji Commercial Bank to GFH in return to receiving GFH’s entire 100 per cent equity interest in Al Areen Leisure and Tourism SPC, in addition to $3 million to be paid either in cash or through GFH treasury shares.
Shareholders will also be asked to give the nod to approve borrowing by GFH through any special purpose vehicle established by GFH or at its request, of up to $500 million in equity linked Murabaha Financing.

The Bahrain Financial Exchange launched its Islamic Finance division with the establishment of Bait Al Bursa marking the creation of the region's first exchange-operated platform dedicated to Islamic finance products.
Bait Al Bursa will offer Shariah-compliant solutions to a wide range of regional and international participants.
As part of it's initial product offering, the Islamic division will introduce a fully electronic Shariah-compliant platform, e-Tayseer, for automating Murabaha transactions. e-Tayseer has been built with the Mena market in mind ensuring that its underlying assets are identifiable, and the process flow is fully Shariah-compliant addressing some of the issues in the market today. e-Tayseer offers financial institutions the option to purchase assets directly from asset suppliers to be used for their Murabaha liquidity management transactions in a secure online environment.

Saudi firms may launch 10 Islamic bonds, or sukuk, in 2011, more than double their number this year, but they will be dominated by private placements.
Key factors that will spur demand for Saudi sukuk issues will be a low interest rate environment in Saudi and Dubai World's restructuring accord with 99 percent of its bank lenders as well as Dubai's successful $1.25bn conventional bond issue in late September.
Saudi Arabia has had four sukuk issues this year so far, Nisar said, but declined to comment on the expected size of issues and only cited Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and an Aramco-Total joint-venture as being among the prospective issuers.
The interest rate environment in Saudi Arabia -- the main repo interest rate stands at two percent -- might seem discouraging for prospective sukuk buyers.

Neova Insurance, a joint venture by five companies, aims at atracting customers who are cool towards insurance because of the their religious concerns, said the chief executive officer Tuesday at a press meeting in Istanbul.
Neova Insurance succeeded to realize premium generation of 44 million Turkish Liras by the end of September.
The company’s strategy is established to keep current customer in the system, to be proactive, to share profits and add new customers to the system so on, Koç told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review.
There are many peeople in Turkey who remain “frosty” to insurance companies “due to their religious concerns".
Target of Neova Sigorta founder partners of which consist of various affiliates of Kuwait Finance House, or KFH that is shown as the most important finance organization in its region with equity capital about 6 billion dollars and principal partner of which is Turkapital is to become one of important actors of the market.

The Albaraka Türk Participation Bank and Anadolu Hayat Retirement have signed a cooperation agreement to attract investment from customers cool on interest-based banking and insurance services into individual retirement system.
Since traditional Islamic rules do not permit interest bearing bonds, the venture aims to offer individual retirement products benefiting from non-interest based investment tools rather than interest based profit in attempt to net a potentially lucrative pool of religious clients.
Albaraka Türk Participation Bank General Manager Fahrettin Yah?i said the individual retirement system would grow further once those abstaining from interest-based revenue are also included in the system.

The UAE is working on a mortgage law which will make it easier for people to buy residential units, UAE Central Bank Governor said.
Speaking at the seminar, the Central Bank governor said the government has also set up a committee to look into the Amlak issue.
The UAE government said in late 2008 that it would merge Amlak Finance and Tamweel and has been working on a plan to restructure them. Shares in the two firms have not traded since. But last month, Dubai Islamic took majority stake in Tamweel leaving Amlak's fate hanging in balance.
Sources told Emirates 24|7 on Wednesday that three Islamic banks - Emirates Islamic Bank, Dubai Bank and Noor Islamic Bank - are considering merger and then the merged entity will take over Amlak.

The following borrowers are expected to sell Islamic bonds, which use asset returns to pay investors to comply with the religion’s ban on interest.
SAUDI ARABIAN OIL CO.: Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest state-owned oil company, and Total SA plan to sell Islamic bonds valued at $1 billion this year to fund construction of their joint oil refinery in Jubail, said Simon Eedle, global head of Islamic banking at Credit Agricole SA, the lead arranger of the sale.
ABU DHABI ISLAMIC BANK PJSC: The United Arab Emirates’ second-biggest Shariah-compliant lender hired HSBC Holdings Plc, Standard Chartered Plc and Barclays Plc to help sell bonds, according to two bankers familiar with the plan. The bank has a $5 billion sukuk trust certificate program, according to a prospectus dated July 8 posted by the company on the London Stock Exchange’s website.
PT BANK MUAMALAT INDONESIA: The Islamic lender plans to sell 1 trillion rupiah ($112 million) of Islamic bonds in the second half of 2011, Andi Buchari, director of compliance and corporate planning at the Jakarta-based bank, was quoted as saying by the Investor Daily newspaper last week.

The World Bank Group, in partnership with the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), is setting up a regional initiative that could raise up to $1 billion to close the Mena infrastructure gap, which will undermine the region's growth if not addressed.
Private sector investment in infrastructure in Mena countries is limited, especially outside the Gulf countries, despite huge unmet demand for infrastructure services.
The $1 billion initiative aims at addressing this shortfall through a regional investment vehicle to support both conventional and Sharia-compliant investment in infrastructure.

Doha Bank and Allianz Takaful, a major player in the Takaful insurance segment have jointly announced a Bancassurance partnership to promote Islamic Insurance products in Qatar.
In a function held at the Head Office of Doha Bank R Seetharaman, CEO of Doha Bank and Dr Abdul Rahman Tolefat, Chairman of Allianz Takaful signed on the landmark Bancassurance partnership agreement. Through this arrangement the bank will promote and sell Family Takaful products comprising of plans for protection, savings, investment and child education developed and underwritten by Allianz Takaful. The products which are denominated in dollars and Qatari Riyal will be available to both conventional and Islamic banking customers.

Investment manager Argyll Investment Services has launched the World Shariah Funds PCC, a Guernsey-based suite of Islamic-compliant investments which will be listed on the Channel Islands Stock Exchange (CISX) and distributed globally.
This is the first time they have come together in a single offering and strict criteria have been applied to the selection of the companies whose shares are held within the funds. From a ‘basket’ of Shari’ah-compliant companies, a selection is made of those whose earnings are most likely to exceed the market average and the result is an actively-managed portfolio intended to outperform an Islamic equity index.
The fund launch follows Argyll’s participation in the Guernsey Finance presence at the Fund Forum Middle East conference in Bahrain last year at which Legis and the fund’s legal advisers, Ogier, were also present.
Stuart Place, of Argyll, delivered a presentation on ‘Innovation vs. Conservatism: How to achieve results in a post-credit-crunch market’ following which the Guernsey parties were introduced to a Middle East fund promoter.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said that it believes that the sukuk market has grown large enough to support a transformation in the Islamic fund industry.
The report is titled "Sukuk Funds Poised To Grow As Sukuk Market Continues To Expand".
The sukuk market returned to growth in the first half of 2010. Global sukuk issuance topped US$13.7 billion during this period, nearly twice the US$7.1 billion recorded during the same period last year.

Noor Islamic Bank expects to close a “healthy number” of Islamic syndicated loans and Islamic bonds in the first half of 2011, with Turkey emerging as an active market for Islamic finance.
Aamer Zaidi, head of corporate banking at Noor Islamic Bank, said on Wednesday that the company is involved in a few sukuk issuances in the Gulf region and is also working on syndicated loans within the UAE.
The Gulf sukuk market is poised for a revival as large corporate and supra-national issues come to market following Dubai World’s restructuring accord with 99 percent of its bank lenders as well as Dubai’s successful $1.25 billion conventional bond issue in late September.