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Saudi Arabia's Al Othaim Real Estate and Investment Co, owner of five shopping malls in the kingdom, is marketing a five-year debut sukuk issue which could raise up to 1 billion riyals ($267 million) for the company. The firm, also known as Othaim Malls, is part of Al Othaim Holding, a family-owned conglomerate which includes listed food retailer Abdullah Al Othaim Markets Co. Othaim Malls launched the transaction last week, with pricing earmarked at between 165 basis points and 175 basis points over the six-month Saudi interbank offered rate. Part of the proceeds will be used to fund its expansion plans.

Arcapita recently acquired Phase One of Saadiyat Beach Residences, a premium residential apartment complex in Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi, for a reported $200 million. Built by Mubadala Development Co., the complex boasts three low-rise buildings in a gated community developed in 2013. It is under a three-year master lease to the Tourism Development & Investment Co. Arcapita has been actively sourcing for new real estate deals within the region, which includes Abu Dhabi. The firm's current focus sectors are residential and logistics. Additionally, on a global basis, Arcapita looks forward to closing a number of real estate and private equity transactions in the coming months.

Market Research Reports, Inc. has published the research report “Challenges and Opportunities for the Wealth Sector in Saudi Arabia 2015” on their website http://www.MarketResearchReports.com. The report focuses on HNWI performance between the end of 2010 and the end of 2014. This enables us to determine how well the country's high net worth individuals (HNWI) have performed through the crisis. This report is a thorough analysis of Saudi Arabia's Wealth Management and Private Banking sector, and the opportunities and challenges that it faces. The report also includes comprehensive forecasts to 2019.

Bankers expect the overall profitability to be moderate this year while top-line growth is expected to be significantly lower, while factors such as improved recoveries, stronger collateral values and lower provisions could continue to boost their bottom lines. Non-performing loans (NPLs) and provision figures for the first two quarters confirm this argument. For Emirates NBD (ENBD), during the first half, the impaired loan ratio improved to 7.4 per cent from 7.9 per cent at the end of 2014. For Mashreq, NPLs remained stable at Dh2.8 billion in June 2015, leading to NPLs to gross loans ratio of 3.7 per cent at the end of June 2015.

Ibdar Bank, a Bahrain-based wholesale Islamic investment bank, has reported an increase of 51 per cent in total revenues at $11.1 million for the six months ended June 30, when compared with the same period last year. A statement by the bank said total profits for the period increased by 79pc to $2.54m after an impairment charge of $2.2m relating to legacy assets. Excluding these one-off charges, said the bank, it achieved improved profitability of $4.72m when compared with $1.96m in the first half last year.

Moody's Investors Service has affirmed Masraf Al Rayan's (MAR) A2/Prime-1 issuer ratings and baa3 baseline credit assessment (BCA) and adjusted BCA. At the same time, Moody's changed the outlook on the bank's long term issuer ratings to positive from stable. Moody's affirmation reflects MAR's continued strong core financial fundamentals with (1) consistently strong asset quality performance, (2) strong and stable profitability and (3) solid capital buffers. The change in the outlook to positive from stable reflects the ongoing improvements in MAR's business and geographic diversification. Further underpinning Moody's view on the outlook is Qatar's considerable economic strength.

For debt that’s off limits to many banks in the Gulf region, junk-rated Damac Properties Dubai Co’s securities aren’t doing badly at all. The company’s $650mn of bonds maturing April 2019 were the best-performing sukuk in Dubai during July, returning almost 70% more than their nearest rivals. Even after the gains, the yield at 6.45% remained the highest for any non-perpetual Islamic bonds in the emirate as of July 31. While most regional banks don’t hold junk-rated bonds in their books due to capital adequacy requirements, estimates that sales may quadruple this year are boosting the allure of the Dubai developer’s debt to investors seeking higher yields in anticipation of the first US interest-rate increase since 2006.

Emirates Reit yesterday posted an 8 per cent rise in first-half earnings generated by its properties, thanks to higher rents and service charge ­income. Revenue between January and June reached US$19.1 million, up 7.9 per cent from $17.7m for the same period last year. Net income grew 6 per cent to $44.7m because of a $31m gain from the revaluation of its properties. The company said its investment properties were valued at $613.4m as of June 30, up 9.6 per cent from $559.7m for the year-earlier period. Emirates Reit has $1.3m of property that is being fitted out. About $344m worth of its investment properties have been mortgaged against Islamic financing facilities.

The Supreme Council for Women (SCW)’s general secretariat held a meeting with Al Salam Bank Bahrain during which the two sides explored means of activating the National Model for the inclusion of women’s needs in banking. The meeting also explored provision of policy and ancillary services for women in the workplace. This included a nursery for children of bank employees after a feasibility study by the bank to determine its need and support for recruitment of handicapped people in financial and banking institutions. The meeting discussed challenges facing women in assuming leading posts and cultural and social issues, especially women’s night-time office duty and their aspirations in career progression.

The National Commercial Bank ( NCB ) has successfully settled an issuance of subordinated Additional Tier I capital Sukuk, in the amount of SAR 2 Billion, and compliant with Islamic Sharia principles through a private placement offer in Saudi Arabia. Sukuk issuances such as this are intended to strengthen the Bank's capital base in accordance with the Basel III framework and sustain its growth while maintaining healthy capital adequacy levels. Additionally, the Sukuk will continue to extend the maturity profile of NCB 's liabilities while continuing to diversify its sources of funding. NCB Capital Company acted as sole Lead Manager.

In a statement to the Tadawul, Bank Aljazira has issued a correction to its financial results for H1 2015. Originally the bank had stated total operating income for Q2 of SAR 612 million. However, after reclassifying gains from the disposal of land, Bank Aljazira says total operating income for Q2 was SAR 1.184 billion. At first the bank had classified the gain of SAR 573 million on the disposal as non-operating income. The gain has now been reclassified as operating revenue on the recommendation of the bank’s external auditors.

Barwa Bank's net profit for the half-year stood at QAR 412 million, while earnings per share rose to QAR 1.39in the first half of 2015, compared with QAR 1.38over the corresponding period in 2014. Underlined by growth across its financing assets and investment securities, the bank's total assets soared by 16% to QAR 41.3 billion for the first half of the year; financing assets alone registered an increase of 10% to exceed QAR 24.4 billion. Owing to Barwa Bank's focus on product and service development and integration across business segments, as well as to a heavy push on tech-driven innovation, customer deposits for the first half of 2015, increased by 4% to stand at QAR 23.2 billion.

Damaan Islamic Insurance Company (Beema) has announced the launch of the first of its kind service in Qatar, which enables its customers to renew or buy their motor insurance over the phone. As one of Qatar’s fastest growing Islamic insurance companies, Beema is taking its customer service to a whole new dimension at no extra cost, said Nasser Al Misnad, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Beema.

GFH has announced to its shareholders and the markets that, in line with its extraordinary general meeting’s approval obtained on April 12, it has completed the formalities with the relevant authorities for changing its commercial name. Accordingly, the name has officially been changed from Gulf Finance House to ‘GFH Financial Group BSC’ starting on July 30th. The Islamic investment bank is based in Bahrain and was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2007. The company also holds a 25 per cent stake in Leeds United, a Football League Championship club through its wholly owned subsidiary, the Dubai-based GFH Capital.

Dubai Bank PJSC wants to sell its shareholding in BankIslami Pakistan, a stock filing said on Wednesday. Another shareholder, Jahangir Siddiqui and Company, reported that it has received a letter from the UAE-based bank, saying it wants to sell 144.2 million shares in BankIslami Pakistan. The stake that Dubai Bank PJSC wants to sell constitutes 14.3% of the total issued shares of BankIslami Pakistan. Dubai Bank is offering its stake to Jahangir Siddiqui and Company and another (unnamed) shareholder of BankIslami Pakistan under its shareholders’ agreement that mandates a right of first refusal on a proportionate basis.

LCI Helicopters has closed an Islamic pre-delivery payment facility with Bank of London and the Middle East and Lloyds Bank. The facility will be used for Airbus H175s and H224es delivering over the next three years. LCI says it will be used to make pre-delivery payments on helicopters worth $250 million. The LCI deal relied on a master Murabaha facility with Lloyds also providing a conventional loan. Lloyds was mandated lead arranger for both facilities. BLME also closed a $25 million pre-delivery facility for LCI in December that financed AgustaWestland pre-delivery payments.

The MENA Private Equity Association has launched its ninth “MENA Private Equity & Venture Capital” Annual Report. According to the Report, 2014 was a significant year for the industry and has demonstrated the highest levels since 2008 in investment values and fund raisings. 2014 has also seen growth in investment and divestment volumes compared to 2013. The year was characterised by some of the largest private equity deals seen in the region. Fund managers had demonstrable success in assembling and working with consortium partners, including international private equity investors, to close major transactions. Overall, there was a sense of returning confidence and increased opportunities as the region continued to emerge from the impact of the Arab Spring.

The value of bonds and sukuk issued by GCC entities during H1 2015 amounted to $48.13 billion, down by 15.19 per cent from the same period in 2014. This is according to a report issued by Kuwait Financial Centre (Markaz) and titled GCC Bonds & Sukuk Market Survey. The study highlights the trends pertaining to issuances in the GCC region during H1 2015. The report adds that during the first half of 2015, central banks in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman raised a total of $28.29bn, pointing out that the Central Bank Local Issuances are fixed-income securities issued by GCC central banks for the purpose of regulating levels of domestic liquidity.

Bahrain Islamic Bank (BisB) has realised BHD 8.2 million as net income for the six month period ended 30 June 2015, compared to BHD 4.0 million for the same period last year, an increase of 105 per cent. The Bank has reported for the three months ended 30 June 2015 net income of BHD 5.1 million compared to BHD 1.5 million for the same period last year while gross income reached BHD 11.2 million as compared to BHD 7.8 million for the same period last year. Total expenses for the three months period ended 30 June 2015 remained the same at BHD 5.3 million. Net provisions for the three months ended 30 June 2015 amounted to BHD 786 thousand as compared to BHD 1 million for the same period last year.

Kuwait is preparing legislation to facilitate issues of Islamic bonds by the government as it assesses options to finance a big budget deficit caused by low oil prices, Finance Minister Anas al-Saleh said. Early this month, Kuwait’s parliament approved a budget for the current fiscal year that envisages a deficit of 8.18 billion dinars ($27.0 billion) - nearly half total spending - because of oil’s plunge since mid-2014, which has slashed energy export revenues. The government is looking at ways to save money by limiting energy subsidies and other handouts, and this has worried a public used to a lavish cradle-to-grave welfare system.