IslamicFinance.de

QInvest L.L.C. has announced the acquisition of ERGO Portfoy, one of the largest and fastest growing asset management companies in Turkey. Following the completion of this acquisition, QInvest Asset Management will have assets under management close to $1 billion. ERGO Portfoy has been rebranded as QInvest Portfoy and is a subsidiary of Qatar’s QInvest. The senior management of QInvest Portfoy will remain with the firm and will be led by Mr. Murat Vanli, the General Manager of ERGO Portfoy, and will continue to operate from Istanbul. The company has been granted its license to operate by The Capital Markets Board of Turkey (CMB) and is licenced to offer portfolio management to both individual and institutional investors.

Resetting Priorities - Redefining Roles

Five years ago, the Global Donors Forum was convened in Dubai to take on a challenging task: to define the roadmap for Muslim giving into the next decade. As a growing network of philanthropists, grantmaking foundations and socially responsible corporations, the Forum lead a consultative dialogue among the thought leaders from which, it was hoped, a new social compact could emerge.

Half a decade on, with the world having changed dramatically as events in the Middle East would attest, the Global Donors Forum 2016, has a new set of issues to focus upon. Foremost among these is the need to rigorously analyse the past decade in order to ascertain how best to formulate strategies to counter emerging challenges. The GDF 2016 will, therefore, attempt to set new priorities as it looks to redefine the role of philanthropy, with a focus on the Muslim world in a radically changed global landscape.

Indonesia is likely to defeat Turkey to host the Islamic Development Bank’s (IDB) headquarters, a spokesman of the bank has said. Indonesia's strategic position and role during the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit were two driving factors behind the decision. IDB Indonesia country director Ibrahim Shoukry said the bank had committed to investing US$1.2 billion on projects in Indonesia over five years. Indonesia, he further said, had some advantages over Turkey due to its prospective market in Asia, which is healthier than Turkey's main market, Europe. Indonesia’s market will be broader due to the ASEAN Economic Community.

The Islamic subsidiary of Turkey's Ziraat Bank has launched a bitesize $75m murabaha deal, as the bank itself refinances $1bn of loans. Ziraat Participation (Ziraat Katilim Bankasi), which is wholly owned by Ziraat Bank, launched a $75m dual currency loan earlier this week — its first ever syndicated deal, according to a lead banker. Banks can make commitments in euros and dollars. ABC Islamic Bank is co-ordinator.

TMSF fund says Bank Asya will either be sold or merged within this period, or liquidated if that not possible.

Turkey's Bank Asya will not be returned to its original shareholders after being seized by the government last year, the deposit insurance fund that now owns the bank said, adding that it would pursue liquidation if a buyer is not found within three months. Within the framework of the existing legal situation, the return of the bank to its (shareholders) is not possible, the Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) said on Tuesday, adding that it had given the bank a three-month deadline from Feb. 29 to find a buyer or be merged. If this is not possible, its liquidation will come on to the agenda, the TMSF said.

The First Investor (TFI), the investment banking arm of Qatar’s Barwa Bank, is looking for investments in Turkey, in sectors ranging from real estate to food, its acting chief executive Yousef Al Obaidan said. TFI has not specified a budget for Turkey, although its existing holdings in the Gulf region average around $100-$150 million per investment, Al Obaidan said. Individual investments in Turkey could exceed that, he said. The bank, which is also involved in private equity and asset management, is particularly interested in Turkey’s real estate, healthcare, education and food and beverage industries, Al Obaidan said. TFI is already active in Turkey, where Kiler, a REIT, mandated it in December for the sale of the Istanbul Sapphire shopping center and residence.

The Islamic lending arm of Turkey’s state-run Ziraat Bank has applied to sell 1.5 billion lira ($501.9 million) worth of Islamic bonds, according to Turkey’s Capital Markets Board (SPK). The sale would be the first by a state-run Islamic bank, and follows a wider government push to develop the sector in the world’s eighth most populous Muslim nation. No tenor or details of underlying assets were given for the deal, which will be sold to qualified investors. Islamic lender Kuveyt Türk also applied for 1.85 billion lira worth of sukuk. Ziraat Participation Bank started operations in May 2015, with 675 million lira in paid-up capital and plans to have 170 branches and 2,200 staff by the end of 2018.

Turkey plans to sell Islamic lender Bank Asya by the end of May and will liquidate it if a buyer is not found, Sakir Ercan Gul, chairman of the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) that controls the bank said. Gul said that some of the bank's partners have accepted it, some of them have not. The bank will be sold in any case, he added. Last year the government seized the assets of Bank Asya, saying its financial structure and management presented a threat to the financial system, and took over more than 20 companies with ties to Gulen.

Speaking at the launch of the participation banking unit of state-owned Vakibank, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the share of Islamic banking is around five per cent now, but the target was earlier defined to increase this share to 15 per cent by 2025. He stated his opinion that the share should reach 25 per cent instead. In December 2014 Vakifbank’s Board of Directors had authorized the bank to carry out all necessary transactions to obtain financing from Islamic Development Bank (IDB) to pledge capital for the Bank's participation banking project, amounting to $300 million with Turkish Treasury guarantee.

A statement from the deposit insurance fund (DIF) that Islamic lender Bank Asya would either be sold or liquidated by the end of May has no legal basis and its shareholders will never agree to such forced maneuvers, Süleyman Ta?ba?, a lawyer for Bank Asya shareholders said. Selling the bank is not legally possible according to banking law, he explained, adding that the bank's equity capital ratio is still strong; it has TL 1.35 billion in equities and another TL 1.4 billion deposited with the central bank. Plus, the shareholders still hold ownership. Ta?ba? criticized DIF's irresponsible statements, adding that all parties should respect the judicial process that is currently under way with regards to the bank's future.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has announced it is co-financing the development of a 318 million-euro high-tech hospital in Konya, a city in Turkey’s central Anatolian region. As part of a comprehensive long-term financial package, the EBRD has arranged a 147.5-million-euro-of syndicated loan under its A/B loan structure, with 67.5 million euros for the Bank’s own account and 80 million euros of syndicated to UniCredit Bank Austria AG and Siemens Financial Services. The Black Sea Trade and Development Bank and the Islamic Development Bank are providing parallel financing of 50 million euros and 67.5 million euros respectively.

Adnan Ahmed Yousif, the head of Al Baraka Banking Group, said Turkey, and especially Istanbul, had the potential to become a hub for financial services. Yousif, who is the president and CEO of the Bahrain-based group, said Turkish economic administrators were aiming to broaden the services offered to customers, with special focus on participation banks. He also said Turkey's huge potential might facilitate the interest of investors from the Gulf countries as well as create new opportunities for the recently expanding sukuk market in Turkey.Turkey and especially Istanbul, is very close to participation banking markets, such as the GCC and Europe.

There are a growing number of transactions in the Turkish market that are financed by GCC institutions; and the Gulf States are steadily rising investors in Turkey. Among the lastest crop of deals, Qatar’s QInvest has provided a five year $30m murabaha mezzanine finance facility for Turkish private equity firm Crescent Capital to fund its acquisition of a 100% stake in Akocak HPP, an operational 81 MW hydro-electric power plant in Turkey. QInvest has structured and invested in the transaction. The deal also shows that traditional project finance structures are giving way to alternative financing structures, with Islamic finance showing potential for further growth in the funding of capital goods projects.

Kuwait Finance House Turkey (KFH-Turkey) issued Tier 2 capital-boosting sukuk worth $350 million to support its capital situation. The bank has set the yield at 7.9 percent for 10-year tenure. The sukuk will be listed on the Irish Stock Exchange for trading. The credit rating agency "Fitch" assigned an expected rating of BBB- to this tier 2 Basel III-complaint issue. The bank targets boosting its capital adequacy ratio so it can grow and enhance its presence in the international markets, said CEO- KFH -Capital Abdulaziz Nasser Al-Marzouq. KFH -Turkey mandated international banks and financial institutions led by KFH -Capital as a global coordinator, manager and syndicator, in addition to other lead managers and syndicators which are HSBC, Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), Nour Bank, QInvest Investment Bank, Emirates NBD, and KAMCO Investment Company.

Kuwait Finance House (KFH) will set up a sharia-compliant asset management unit under its Turkish bank branch, the lender said on Monday. Kuwait Finance House Turk will establish five sharia-compliant investment funds and offer other investment services under KT Portfoy, the new unit, KFH said in a bourse statement. The establishment of the new firm is conditional on approval from Turkey's capital market authority. KFH's chief executive in January said it would issue Islamic bonds to boost capital reserves at its subsidiary bank in Turkey, even as it looks to restructure its global assets.

Fitch Ratings says it expects Turkish Islamic banks' loan growth to remain above the sector average, supported by new entrants to the market and increasing penetration, despite intense competition from conventional banks. Excluding the troubled Bank Asya, Islamic banks (participation banks) expanded their loan books 34% YoY in1H15, compared with sector's average of 25%. For 2016 Fitch forecasts 15%-20% loan growth for the sector. In a report published today, Fitch says return on equity could increase in 2016, underpinned by loan growth, but will be sensitive to non-performing loan (NPL) growth due to the banks' fairly high credit risk profiles and a volatile operating environment.

Bank Asya, which is known for its links to the Gülen Movement, has been fined TL 15 million ($5.14 million) for unpaid taxes. The Finance Ministry's tax authority imposed the fines after examining the bank's accounts for 2010, 2011 and 2012. In May, the BDDK's audit report on Bank Asya revealed that the bank's privileged shareholders signed blank transfer contracts and a large number of shady transactions were carried out. After 63 percent of stakes belonging to the bank's A group shareholders were transferred to the TMSF in February, the BDDK launched an investigation into the bank, finding a number of dubious transactions in investigations. In addition, the international credit rating agency Fitch said in June that Turkey's banking sector would not be significantly affected by the takeover of Bank Asya.

On December 15, 2015, the Prime Ministry of the Republic of Turkey issued a circular on the formation of an Islamic Finance Coordination Committee (Faizsiz Finans Koordinasyon Kurulu) to accelerate the development of Turkey's Islamic finance markets. The Islamic Finance Coordination Committee will be chaired by the minister responsible for the Undersecretariat of Treasury and will include top financial markets regulators from the Ministry of Development, the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank, the Banking Regulation and Supervision Authority, the Capital Markets Board, Borsa Istanbul, and the Islamic Banks Association of Turkey. The Islamic Finance Coordination Committee will also consult with non-governmental organizations, academics and professional organizations.

Turkey is likely to loosen some regulations on domestic banks to spur lending, Huseyin Aydin, the head of the national banking association said, as the government looks to ease the impact of a widely expected central bank rate increase. The government is determined to pursue growth-oriented economic policies. It is expected that easing in macro-prudential measures will be carried out. Five years ago regulators introduced tighter rules designed to cool lending and close a yawning current account deficit. Those included higher reserve requirements, forcing banks to hold more capital.
Aydin said he expects changes to regulations on reserve requirements and risk weighting of assets, which should help to offset the impact of tighter monetary policy on bank costs.