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Bahrain based Ibdar Bank together with Dubai-based Palma Holding received the African Aviation Awards' "Aircraft Finance Deal of the Year" for their successful structuring of a 12-year agreement for acquiring four brand new Bombardier Q400 Next Gen aircrafts and leasing them to the Ethiopian Airlines. The African Aviation Awards were introduced by African Aviation Magazine in 1999 in order to give International recognition to those individuals, companies and organisations who have made significant contributions to Aviation Development in Africa. Valued at USD 100 million, Ibdar Bank contributed as investor with USD 22 million, while an amount of USD 78 million was secured through a funding agreement with Canada's Export Credit Agency "EDC".

A final approval for the draft takaful or Islamic insurance regulation, which was cleared by the State Council in February, is expected soon. The draft Takaful Insurance Law, which was prepared by the insurance regulator, Capital Market Authority (CMA), is expected to give the much-needed impetus to the development of the Islamic financial sector. The law, which was drafted with the assistance of a consultant in line with the principles of the Islamic Financial services Board, was circulated among all related parties, especially insurance firms for their feedback, before seeking approval from various entities like the Ministerial Council and the Ministry of Legal Affairs.

Deloitte and Noor Telecom have collaborated with Dubai Islamic Economy Development Center (DIEDC) for the compilation of a report that highlights the untapped potential of the Digital Islamic Services market and offers key recommendations for realizing Dubai's vision of emerging as the capital of Islamic economy. The report whose title is ‘The Digital Islamic Services Landscape: Uncovering the Digital Islamic Services opportunity for the Middle East and the World’ combines a range of qualitative and quantitative research projects conducted for the offline and online markets around the world. The report defines the Digital Islamic Services landscape under nine key industry verticals and areas, which constitute the pillars of the global Islamic economy online.

Kuwait International Bank has invited banks to participate in a $100 million debut Islamic loan to fund its general funding activities and the marketing of the deal should close by early August, it said in a statement. The bank will raise funds with a three-year lifespan and will pay a margin of 120 basis points over the London interbank offered rate (Libor). The lender will use a murabaha-structured facility, which is a cost-plus-profit arrangement, one of the most popular formats for structuring Islamic loans. Arab Banking Corporation and ABC Islamic Bank are the mandated lead arrangers for the transaction.

Bahrain-based Islamic investment firm Arcapita said on Wednesday it had sold its real estate portfolio of retirement communities across the United States to NorthStar Healthcare Income Trust for $640 million. The portfolio includes 16 facilities and 4,000 residential units for continuing senior care. Net operating income from the portfolio grew by 41 per cent between 2010 and 2014, despite a slump in the U.S. housing market following the 2008 financial crisis. Abdulmalik said the firm has given $3 billion in exit proceeds to its investors in the last two years but did not give a breakdown of profits for its real estate portfolio exit. In November, Arcapita completed a $100 million fundraising, a little over a year after emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Takaful regulation across the GCC remains fragmented between specialist takaful regimes, general insurance regimes that are also applicable to takaful insurers and regimes which have little or no specific recognition of takaful. Despite this, the GCC takaful market remains one of the most important and fast growing in the world. The relatively recent introduction of specialist takaful regimes means we are still very much in the developmental stage of regulatory oversight. The recent introduction of the new Financial Regulations in the UAE and the potential establishment of a Shari’a Oversight Committee represents steps firmly in the direction of closer and more robust regulatory scrutiny of takaful in the UAE. We are yet to see if other GCC States will follow.

The recent decline in oil prices has sparked expectations that Saudi Arabia may issue domestic sovereign debt this year for the first time since 2007. Much of this debt would probably be long term and would be bought by the country’s banks. Sovereign debt issuance would create another benefit for potential corporate issuers by helping create a pricing benchmark. Another factor that is likely to spur Saudi sukuk issuance in the medium term is the Capital Market Authority’s plan to reform the corporate debt market, including measures to make regulatory approval of debt products easier. The main factor likely to slow or limit sukuk growth is higher initial costs compared to other forms of borrowing.

Bahrain-based Islamic investment firm Arcapita said on Wednesday it had sold its real estate portfolio of retirement communities across the United States to NorthStar Healthcare Income Trust for $640 million. The portfolio includes 16 facilities and 4,000 residential units for continuing senior care. Net operating income from the portfolio grew by 41 percent between 2010 and 2014, despite a slump in the U.S. housing market following the 2008 financial crisis. Abdulmalik said the firm has given $3 billion in exit proceeds to its investors in the last two years but did not give a breakdown of profits for its real estate portfolio exit. In November, Arcapita completed a $100 million fundraising, a little over a year after emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy driven by debt repayment difficulties.

Dar Al Takaful has been recently granted the approval by Dubai Health Authority to provide medical insurance coverage to the category with salaries below AED.4000, the service is offered to the SMEs and sponsors. Saleh Al Hashmi, the Managing Director of Dar Al Takaful expressed his pleasure with the selection of Dar Al Takaful by Dubai Health Authority to provide this service and said that this confirmed the strong partnership between the government and the private sector and assure. This cooperation comes in line with Dubai Strategic Plan 2015 aims at securing the wellbeing of Dubai citizens and residents. He added that the new service is part of the firm's strategy that aims to provide the best medical care with competitive rates and without imposing extra fees on the insurance policy.

Since 2010, the GCC market has doubled its total private wealth from $1.1 trillion to $2.2 trillion for an overall compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.5 per cent, making it an even more lucrative market for local and global private bankers, according to a study by management consultancy Strategy&. Most of the region’s private wealth resides in Saudi Arabia (44 per cent), but the UAE has made notable gains with its share of the GCC’s private wealth increasing from 24 per cent to 30 per cent from 2009 to 2013. Together, Saudi Arabia and the UAE control 74 per cent of the region’s private wealth, up from 71 per cent in 2009. The study reveals that geopolitical events also intensified the migration of new wealth to the region.

Saudi Arabia's Al Othaim Real Estate and Investment Co, owner of five shopping malls in the kingdom, has revived plans to issue a debut local currency Islamic bond, probably after the summer. The firm has picked the investment banking arms of Banque Saudi Fransi, Gulf International Bank and National Commercial Bank as lead arrangers for the riyal-denominated bond. Timing is now centred on issuing after the summer, as activity in the Saudi capital markets slows down for the holy month of Ramadan, expected to start later this month, and then the long summer break away from the desert heat. After a slow start to the year, sukuk issuance in the riyal-denominated market has picked up in recent weeks.

Bahrain-based Ibdar Bank has announced its financial results for the first quarter of the year ended March 31, 2015 marked by strong performance and profitability. For the quarter, the Bank reported a net profit of USD3 million compared with USD1 million in the first quarter of 2014, an increase of 200%. Total income for the period also rose significantly by 65.8% to USD6.3 million versus USD3.8 million in the prior-year period. Strong profits can be attributed to an increase of 1778% in the Bank's income generated from investment banking services over the prior year as well as from income generated by gains made in the trading of investments and securities and profitable exits from existing investments.

Dubai Islamic Bank on Sunday said its $750 million sukuk issuance maturing in June 2020 carries a profit rate of 2.921 per cent and saw a strong oversubscription. The bank had held road show in London, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur for the issuance which is part of its $2.5 billion sukuk programme. The order book was driven by strong demand across the globe, and given the fact that it was oversubscribed nearly three times. Dubai Islamic Bank, First Gulf Bank, HSBC, Maybank, National Bank of Abu Dhabi, and Standard Chartered Bank acted as joint lead managers. Arab Banking Corporation, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Sharjah Islamic Bank and Union National Bank acted as co-lead managers.

In line with the government's initiatives to boost the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector in the Sultanate, Sohar Islamic, Bank Sohar's dedicated Islamic Banking Window, continues to support the sector with its SME line of services. The bank provides financing up to 90 per cent at competitive profit rates for a maximum tenure reaching up to 5 years allowing SMEs to invest in construction equipment, machinery and commercial vehicles. The product is underpinned by simple application and approval process, thus ensuring quick turnaround time (TAT), tie ups with major dealers of equipment and commercial vehicles, collateral-free financing (financed asset constitutes the primary security), and less documentation. In addition to the SME finance, Sohar Islamic has banking solutions that cover retail and corporate financing needs.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has revised its outlook on Bahrain-based Al Baraka Banking Group (ABG) to stable from negative. At the same time, it affirmed the 'BB+' long-term and 'B' short-term counterparty credit ratings on the bank. The outlook revision reflects the agency's expectations that ABG's capitalisation will improve in the next quarters, which would allow it to maintain a Standard & Poor's risk-adjusted capital (RAC) ratio above five per cent. It also reflects the lower pressure in the operating environments - namely Egypt and Jordan - of some of ABG's major subsidiaries. S&P views funding as average and liquidity as adequate. Although ABG has no access to its central bank's funding mechanisms, all subsidiaries are self-funded and would have access to funding mechanisms provided by their domestic authorities in case of need.

Dubai Women Establishment today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Hawkamah, the Institute for Corporate Governance (HICG), aimed at creating a framework to advocate greater female representation in directorship positions in both the public and the private sectors. The MOU was signed by HE Mona Al Marri, Chairperson of the Dubai Women Establishment board and Director General of Dubai Media Office, and HE Hamad Buamim, Chairman of Hawkamah. The MoU will focus on areas of cooperation and will include opportunities for all signatories to participate in knowledge sharing activities and research, report creation and strengthening corporate government frameworks to encourage greater female participation at the board level.

Against a backdrop of low interest rates globally and relatively volatile financial markets regionally, the flow of capital into real estate has continued, according to the latest Dubai Real Estate Investment Report released by Knight Frank. Developed property markets such as those of the UK and Europe should continue to see strong levels of demand from GCC investors. Knight Frank’s Middle East Capital Tracker – which monitors professional real estate investors’ favoured global destinations – shows that the UK remains a firm favourite for almost 60 per cent of investors from this region. The GCC itself, as well as Continental Europe, also rank highly.

Moody's Investors Service has today upgraded to Baa1 from Baa2 the insurance financial strength rating (IFSR) of the Qatar Islamic Insurance Company ("QIIC"). The rating carries a stable outlook. The rating upgrade for QIIC reflects (i) the company's improved and extremely strong capitalisation in relation to insurance risk; and (ii) its sustained strong profitability both in terms of underwriting profit and of bottom line. Nonetheless, Moody's added that QIIC maintains a significant level of investment risk, as QIIC invests predominantly in Qatari equity and property markets, translating to a high risk assets ratio. Furthermore, QIIC's insurance risk remains relatively concentrated to Qatar. The outlook is stable reflecting the expectation that the improvements in QIIC's capitalization will be maintained.

Shareholders of Qatar's Barwa Bank approved plans for a $2 billion senior unsecured sukuk programme that could be issued in various currencies, the lender said in a statement on Tuesday. The Islamic bank did not specify a timeframe or size for a potential debut deal. It also received approval to pay a cash dividend of 10 percent to shareholders, the statement said.

SEDCO Holding Group, a Shariah-compliant private wealth management organization, acquired 40% in AlShiaka, the Saudi men’s outfitters specialized in designing and making men’s thobes. Anees Moumina, CEO of SEDCO Holding Group, and Walid Al Andijani, AlShiaka’s CEO, sealed the deal in Jeddah at one of AlShiaka’s outlets on June 1st 2015. The partnership will utilize SEDCO Holding’s capital and expertise in corporate governance to drive the strategic growth of the company. This investment is in line with SEDCO Holding’s strategic approach to invest in viable new ventures in growth sectors in the region. AlShiaka now has 32 showrooms for retail purchasing and this has positioned the company’s market share within the top three among its competitors.