IslamicFinance.de

Unicorn International Islamic Bank Malaysia Bhd, aims to achieve transactions totalling USD 400 mn to USD 500 mn this year as the demand for medium-sized issuance, especially sukuk and cross-border transactions from small and medium enterprises, continued to be strong with a ticket size of USD 50 to 100. A focus would be on bridging and construction financing, as well as placement of equities and funds.

Unicorn has four business lines – treasury, corporate banking, investment banking, and strategic acquisitions/direct investment.

Unicorn International Islamic Bank Malaysia Berhad has reported a net profit of MYR 812,546 (USD 223,993) for 2008, its first full year of operation with an international Islamic bank license awarded under the Malaysia International Islamic Financial Centre (MIFC) initiative. Unicorn Malaysia is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bahrain-based Unicorn Investment Bank.

The bank, with the BNM’s approval, has also increased its paid-up capital via a non-renounceable rights issue. As of year-end 2008, the Bank’s paid-up capital stood at MYR 71.9 million (USD 19.8 mn), versus a MIFC minimum capital requirement of MYR 10 million (USD 2.7 mn)

Unicorn Malaysia has four business lines: Treasury, Corporate Banking, Investment Banking and Strategic Acquisitions/Direct Investment.

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i-VCAP Management Sdn Bhd announced it has received approval from the Securities Commission to operate as an Islamic fund management company. The firm is doing Islamic fund management under the general licence for some time.

Zainal Izlan Zainal Abidin is the CEO.

Experts are expecting further drop in Sukuk isssuance in 2009. Local currencies help to support the markets, K. Salman Younis, head of Kuwait Finance House's Asian operations was cited.

Malaysia’s capital market is fundamentally and prudentially stronger than during the 1997/98 financial crisis, according to the Securities Commission (SC). The market’s exposure to the current global financial turmoil is indirect, the commission said in its Annual Report 2008 released yesterday.

The country also guarantees 100 % of bank deposit until 2010, it said.
The Malaysian Islamic capital market also proved to be relatively resilient with 47 sukuk issues worth RM 43.2 bn approved by the SC last year, which accounted for 31 % of all corporate bonds approved.

Malaysia's PLUS Expressways issues additional RM 745 mn via a specical purpose company, PLUS SPV Berhad based on Musharaka to investors identified via a book building process. The size of the book was successfully increased from RM 400 mn to RM 745 mn under the Sukuk program.

Liau Y-Sing reported on Reuters, 5 March that Malaysia's stock exchange will launch in June a platform to allow banks to execute Commodity Murabaha transactions, a popular but controversial Islamic contract with a market worth more than USD 100 bn according to the International Islamic Financial Market. Any tangible asset that is sharia-compliant can be used in commodity murabaha transactions and palm oil is one obvious example. Malaysia is the world's No. 2 palm oil producer.

But some religious scholars have criticised the structure, saying it resembles conventional-based lending instruments. The Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions is of the view that the contract, while not invalid, is not ideal.

Malaysia is well placed to weather the global financial crisis, well capitalised and with adequate liquidity, Bank Negara Malaysia governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz told the Oxford Business Group (OBG), a global publishing, research and consultancy firm. She said several years of reforms, institutional development and capacity building, continuous efforts to enhance corporate governance and risk management standards and practices had significantly strengthened Malaysia’s banking system.

OBG is to publish The Report: Malaysia 2009, the latest of its annual business guides, with a comprehensive review of the country’s economy.

Liau Y-Sing reported via Reuters on 4 March that Mohd Daud Bakar, a renown Malaysian Sharia scholar, says banks may charge fees for guarantees but cannot sell the risk to a third party.

Etiqa Takaful Bhd recorded for the financial year ended June 30 last year a premium of RM 1.044 bn. It is the first takful company to cross this level and the largest in the world. Currently, the company has about a million policy holders.

Mohd Tarmidzi Ahmad Nordin is Chief Executive Officer.

DELOITTE is setting up an Islamic Finance Centre of Excellence in Kuala Lumpur. This is Deloitte’s only such centre in the region and one of three globally, alongside London and Dubai.

EONCAP Islamic Bank Bhd is eyeing an 8 % growth in financing despite the economic slowdown. The bank has deposits and financing worth RM 4.3 bn and RM 4.8 bn respectively.

Ellina Badri & Racheal Lee Mei Nyee reported on 16 February that BNP Paribas Islamic targets USD 500 mn assets this year.

Angelia Chin-Sharpe is BNP Paribas Investment Partners Malaysia and Brunei country head. Chin-Sharpe said that its current global assets under management and advisory for the Islamic business division stood at USD 500 mn. It intended to grow this to USD 2.5 bn in the next two years and is keen to work with takaful companies to provide them with investment solutions. Further BNP is planning an ETF.

Racheal Lee Mei Nyee reported on 16 February in The Edge Daily, that Nomura Islamic Asset Management Sdn Bhd plans to launch its first product by the second half of this year for the Malaysian market before venturing into the Gulf and other Asian regions, its managing director Toru Nakano said.

The company had set a rather conservative target of USD 1 bn (RM3.6 billion) worth of funds under management within five years. The conventional division currently manages more than USD 1 bn of funds, which are invested both locally and overseas. The Nomura Group had had a presence in the Middle East for 35 years, it was yet to be familiar with Islamic finance and asset management.

Racheal Lee Mei Nyee reported on 16 February in The Edge Daily, that Aberdeen Islamic Asset Management Sdn Bhd aims with the new licence to approach retail investors and launch funds, which it could not do under the conventional licence. The company is seeking seed funding from institutional investors first and look at retail funds only later.

Gerald Ambrose is managing director of Aberdeen Asset Management Sdn Bhd.

Ellina Badri reported in The Edge Daily about the memorandum of understanding between Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd and Bank Muamalat Indonesia Bhd for the distribution of Islamic trust products.

Islamic trusts involve investments made following syariah principles and asset distribution according to Islamic rules of succession. The range of Islamic trust products include will-writing and estate administration services, and waqf, or a gift of property for religious or charitable purposes.

AmanahRaya-JMF Asset Management Sdn Bhd, which currently manages RM 7.5 bn in funds, is looking at going into Islamic real estate investment trusts (REITs) in the next two or three years, says managing director/chief executive officer Sharizad Jumaat, and exclude non compliant components by 2011.

Kuwait Finance House Malaysia said last Friday it has received a USD 300 mn capital injection from its parent, increasing the paid-up capital to USD 500 mn.

PLUS Expressways Bhd, Malaysia’s largest toll-road operator, plans to sell RM 1 bn, 5-year Sukuk to help repay maturing debt and finance expansion projects. Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd and CIMB Islamic Bank Bhd supports the sale of the Sukuk. The company aims to raise RM 350 mn in the coming months to refinance debt maturing in June and to raise another RM 200 mn in the second half of the year to fund a road project in Indonesia.

Loh Li Lian reported on 4 February on Reuters that Malaysian Asian Finance Bank may halve the size of its planned aviation fund to RM 500 mn (USD 138.2 mn) according to Mohamed Azahari Kamil, the chief executive officer of the bank.