IslamicFinance.de

Demand for housing in Saudi Arabia is translating into a rush for some of the lowest-rated Islamic debt in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council. Three sukuk from Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Development Co are among the five best-performing Shariah-compliant bonds in the region this year. The company’s notes due May 2019 returned 8.2% through July 21, compared with an average 2.1% for the GCC sukuk market. The gains underscore efforts by Saudi Arabia’s King Salman to stoke construction amid an estimated shortfall of 2mn homes. The securities have been helped by a clamour for high-yielding assets as the US Federal Reserve prepares to raise interest rates for the first time since 2006.

Warba Bank has recently introduced the new BCT service representing a trading platform for domestic and international commodities. This comes within the framework of the efforts of the Retail Banking Group in providing special services and products to customers in personal finance in accordance with the rules of Islamic Shari’ah and rules of retail finance services.

The enhanced regulatory environment across GCC is expected to result in a surge in costs associated with the implementation of the regulations impacting the profitability of takaful players hard, especially the smaller players. According to S&P profitable insurance companies in the GCC region tend to rely on group medical business or policies that provide significant commission income from reinsurers. Only a few major local insurers can access this profitable commercial business; the smaller players, including the takaful companies, do not have a track record of servicing such contracts and lack the capacity to do so. This leaves all the small players in the region, including takaful companies, reliant on retail business sourced from agents charging high commissions.

Standard Chartered Plc has selected global head of audit Julian Wynter as its chief executive officer for the United Arab Emirates. Wynter’s appointment has yet to be announced officially. Wynter, based in London and previously CEO of the bank’s Malaysian business, will replace Mohsin Nathani, who resigned in April. The bank has also appointed Sohail Akbar as CEO of its Islamic banking unit, known as Saadiq. Akbar is currently based in Malaysia as group chief operating officer of consumer banking and group Islamic banking. Standard Chartered is experiencing a management exodus after Bill Winters took over as CEO from Peter Sands last month.

Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are facing major challenges related to their demographic evolution and oil-dependent economic structure, most notably Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. National population in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia is expected to keep growing fast thus putting pressure on their economies to create a vast amount of jobs for newcomers, the report by Asiya Capital Investment Company said. Saudi authorities are aware of this problem for many years, and developed several "Saudization" initiatives of the labor market. The approach that Kuwait took to nationalize its private labor market, establishing minimum levels of Kuwaiti employees in each company.

GCC countries have experienced massive regulatory change with respect to the insurance sector over the past 12 months, a move that could result in shakeout in the sector, ratings agency Standard & Poor’s said. While the new set of regulations are expected to have a positive long-term impact on the sector — in terms of better capital management, liquidity, internal controls and corporate governance — regional insurance firms, particularly Islamic insurers are facing rising costs. Despite year-on-year premium growth of over 10 per cent in most GCC markets, the GCC insurance sector is overcrowded. Competition is particularly high in the takaful segment.

Bahrain's Arab Insurance Group is in discussions to take full ownership of Dubai-based Islamic reinsurer Takaful Re, as regulatory moves add pressure on firms to consolidate. ARIG is planning to buy the remaining 46 percent of shares it doesn't already own in Takaful Re, subject to shareholder and regulatory approval. Major shareholders of Takaful Re include Dubai Investments, Emirates Funds, Emirates Industrial Bank and the Islamic Development Bank, each holding a 10 percent stake. The regulatory measures have already prompted some consolidation steps, like Bahrain Kuwait Insurance Co raising its stake in local peer Takaful International to 40.9 percent.

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank's (ADIB) 504 million dirham ($137.2 million) rights offer will begin on Aug. 23, after shareholders approved the capital-raising plan. The lender will issue 168 million new shares in order to support its growth. The issue price is 3.0 dirhams. Each existing shareholder will have the right to subscribe to 56 new shares for every 1,000 shares held at the end of trading on Aug. 13. Subscriptions will start on Aug. 23 and end on Sept. 10. ADIB posted a 10.5 rise in its second-quarter net profit on Wednesday, beating analysts' estimates as fee income grew.

Al Hilal Bank has reshuffled its board after the abrupt departure of its chairman and chief executive within a week of each other. The Abu Dhabi-based Islamic bank said a new board had been appointed under the chairmanship of Mohamed Abdullah Al Rumaithi, following the resignation of the former chairman Ahmed Ateeq Al Mazrouei on Monday. Mr Mazrouei’s decision to quit came just a week after the resignation of the chief executive Mohamed Jamil Berro. Sarie Asaad Arar, previously the bank’s chief business officer, was appointed last week as the acting chief executive. The bank said both resignations were for “personal reasons”, declining to give details.

The chairman of Abu Dhabi's government-owned Al Hilal Bank has resigned, a week after the chief executive quit. Ahmed Ateeq al-Mazrouei, chairman since 2008, has left for personal reasons. Senior board member Mohamed Abdullah al-Rumaithi has been appointed to succeed him. Last week Al Hilal's chief executive Mohamed Jamil Berro resigned, also citing personal reasons, after seven years with the bank. Al Hilal's profit for 2014 plunged to 90 million dirhams ($24.5 million) from 442 million dirhams in 2013 because of large loan impairments, according to the lender's latest financial statement. The bank's total assets grew to 41.4 billion dirhams from 38.7 billion dirhams.

Warba Bank reported a net profit growth of 633 per cent to reach KWD 315,000 for the first half of 2015 compared to KWD 43,000 for the first six months of 2014. Total income grew by 37 per cent to reach KWD 11.17 million. The strong operating performance was supported by all business units within the bank. As at June 30, 2015, Warba Bank’s total assets increased 30 per cent to reach KWD 645 million as a result of the bank’s aggressive geographical expansion strategy in local and regional markets, combined with investments in low-risk and high quality assets. The bank’s financing portfolio has also showed a growth of 50 per cent to reach KWD 457 million compared to the first half of 2014. This enabled the bank’s default finances ratio to reach 0.24 per cent.

Bank Muscat, Oman's largest lender, has delayed plans to launch a 500 million rial ($1.3 billion) sukuk programme after the central bank rejected the proposal, a source at the bank said. The regulator informed Bank Muscat in writing that it would not accept the plans in their current form, which involved the lender asking for a single approval to issue 100 million rials a year for the next five years, the source said, adding that the central bank had concerns over plans to use the sukuk proceeds to increase personal lending. The bank will restructure the sukuk proposal and file for the approval again. The plans for the sukuk to be issued in various tranches was backed by Bank Muscat's shareholders in March.

Abu Dhabi-headquartered Shariah-compliant lender Al Hilal Bank has announced resignation of Mohamed Jamil Berro as the CEO, a position he has held since the bank’s establishment in 2008. Berro explained that his resignation is due to personal reasons. The bank’s Board of Directors further revealed that Sarie Asaad Arar will be appointed as Acting Group CEO, who currently holds the position of Chief Business Officer at Al Hilal Bank, and possess over 25 years of banking experience in the UAE.

Eskan Bank has appointed Securities & Investment Company (SICO) as lead arranger for the first real estate investment trust (REIT) on the Bahrain Bourse. Eskan Bank 's REIT will consist of two income-generating and unleveraged properties currently owned by Bahrain Property Musharaka Trust (BPMT) which was formed in May 2011, in collaboration with reputable institutional investors and high net worth individuals. As arranger, SICO is responsible for managing the entire process. The Sharia-compliant REIT is expected to have a total value of BD20 million, with a tranche that will be offered to the public through the initial public offering (IPO) that is planned to take place later this year.

Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) beat the average forecast of analysts as it reported a 27 percent jump in second-quarter net profit on Tuesday. The Islamic lender made a net profit of 494.7 million riyals ($131.9 million) during the period, compared with 389.8 million riyals in the same period a year ago. The lender did not provide a detailed breakdown of its earnings. Qatar Islamic Bank posted net profit of 895.1 million riyals in the first half of the year, higher than 725.2 million riyals it reported a year-ago, according to its statement to the bourse.

The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) announced that it will increase its funding of SDG related activities through its ten year strategy framework, from $80 billion recorded during the MDGs, to $150 billion over the next 15 years (2016-2030). IsDB made the announcement on the sidelines of the United Nations’ Third International Conference on Financing for Development, in Addis Ababa 13-16 July. Islamic finance can serve as a strong and non-traditional source of financing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) according to global experts speaking during a seminar organised by the IsDB. Johannes Majewski, Program Coordinator, GIZ, the German Corporation extolled the strength of Islamic finance through its emphasis on asset based financing and its focus on common welfare.

Saudi Arabia's Arab National Bank has received regulatory approval to raise 2 billion riyals ($533.28 million)through sukuk which will enhance its supplementary capital. The kingdom's seventh-largest lender by assets will privately place the Tier 2 sukuk with a tenor of 10 years although it allows the issuer to redeem the security after five years. Arab National Bank joins a string of Saudi Arabian banks that have sought to replenish their capital reserves in the last couple of years by issuing capital-boosting bonds and bonus shares following a period of strong lending growth. Capital reserves are high in Saudi Arabia due to the kingdom's conservative regulatory standards.

Bahrain will not regain its status as the region’s leading financial centre amid fierce competition in the Arabian Gulf, thus hurting its property market, says the latest country report by Business Monitor International (BMI). The country’s historical position as the regional centre for Islamic finance is being challenged by Dubai, while banks in Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have been competing strongly against the banking sectors in Bahrain and Dubai, according to the market research company. Even so, Bahrain’s construction sector is set to continue growing at about 3.6 per cent over the next four years, it said. And public sector investment will finance infrastructure projects.

Qatari firm Barwa Real Estate Company, has raised $175m through an Islamic loan from International Bank of Qatar to refinance its existing debt. The sharia-compliant loan will last for seven years from the date that the company draws down on the facility. In an effort to refinance its current debt obligations, Barwa Real Estate intends to increase the lifespan of the maturities on the best available terms, as part of its five-year business plan running between 2016 and 2020. As Qatar’s largest listed developer, Barwa Real Estate reported more than doubling its fourth quarter net profit in March this year, as well as an improved dividend payout for the full year. Barwa Real estate is listed on the Qatar Stock Exchange.

Kuwait-based International Turnkey Systems (ITS) appears to be for sale, with its parent, Kuwait Finance House (KFH), deciding it is no longer strategic. There have been number of discussions with main rival in the Islamic core banking systems sector, Path Solutions.