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Jadwa Investment has announced the acquisition of a majority stake in Saudi Mechanical Industries (SMI) by the Jadwa Mechanical Opportunities Fund along with Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (Apicorp). The investment in SMI marks Jadwa’s eighth private equity deal. In 2014, Jadwa completed two major Tadawul listings with Abdulmohsen Al Hokair Group and Al Hammadi Company for Development and Investment, and a full exit via a trade sale with Gulf United Foods Company. Jadwa also announced in September 2014 the full acquisition of Global Environmental Management Services.

Saudi mining and metals company Ma'aden has partnered again with the GCC Board Directors Institute ("BDI") in committing to high corporate governance standards, with the official signature of a sponsorship agreement in Riyadh. The signature of this new agreement also embeds a training platform for Ma'aden employees to access in order to always be well-informed of the latest best practices, be local or international, as well as networking opportunities with other board members across the Gulf. This month, BDI also inaugurated new half-day Focused Sessions for its members.

The 10th International Conference on Islamic Economics and Finance (ICIEF), themed "Institutional Aspects of Economic, Monetary and Financial Reforms," opened at Qatar National Convention Center on Monday. The agenda topics include, inter alia; Shariah solutions for liquidity problems in Islamic banks, especially after Basel III; the need for a central Shariah board in each central bank: the pros and the cons; evaluating the role of fiqh academies for the development of the Islamic financial industry, and whether the industry is influenced by their decisions and research; and 'taqlid' and 'ijtihad' - challenges facing fatwa issuance in Islamic finance.

Global audit services firm KPMG has exclusively partnered with Hawkamah, the Institute for corporate governance, to establish the first Audit Committee Institute (ACI) in the UAE. The Audit Committee Institute (ACI) will provide information, resources and knowledge sharing opportunities, to help audit committee members, directors and senior management enhance the effectiveness, integrity and oversight of the financial reporting process in the UAE and the MENA region. The ACI will be open to audit committee members of private, public, and UAE government institutions.

Across the Gulf, companies that have traditionally used conventional finance are considering whether to "go Islamic", by conforming to sharia principles such as bans on interest payments and monetary speculation. The number of major firms taking the plunge is still small - a handful in the past six months - but they underline the growing depth and cost-effectiveness of Islamic finance after several years of rapid growth in the industry. Companies can face a range of incentives and pressures to adopt Islamic finance. Those include government efforts, social pressures or attractiveness to potential investors.

The Kuwait Finance House (KFH) through its subsidiary 'KFH Investment' has successfully managed to lead a USD 500 million issuance for Sharjah Islamic Bank (SIB) to finance expansion and growth plans. The Sukuk issue is 5 years Wakala/Mudharabah Sukuk deal which has received an over subscription almost 7 times the targeted size. The issue has attracted a USD 3.6 billion order books by 120 various accounts or investors. Geographical distribution shows that 63 percent of orders came from the GCC and the Middle East, 23 percent from Asia and 14 percent from Europe.KFH has acted as a Joint Lead Manager and Bookrunner.

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) is expected to see an increase in its wealth management portfolio, with more high net worth individuals set to start banking at ADIB, according to Daffer Luqman, the bank’s global head of liabilities and wealth management. Luqman said he did not see an impact of falling oil prices on their portfolio of high- and ultra-high net worth individuals. He added that the global financial crisis in 2008 has resulted in more people, including those with high net worth, to look into long-term savings as their financial situation is prone to change.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, received an elite group of professors and scholars in the presence of Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai. The scholars are attending the Islamic Economic FIQH Forum, which kicked off earlier today at the Dubai World Trade Centre. The event will conclude on Tuesday. Sheikh Mohammed and the scholars exchanged views on the importance of Islamic economy in banking, trade and financial transactions.The forum will focus on instilling Islamic jurisprudence in these transactions. It will issue resolutions on the Islamic economy.

Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) will hold, under the auspices of the Central Bank of Bahrain, the 14th edition of its Annual Shari’a Conference on March 22-23 in Bahrain. The conference will be held in 7 sessions to discuss topics relating to application of Shari’a to international Islamic finance products, services and practices as well as continuing innovation of Islamic finance to support further growth and expansion. Following the conference, AAOIFI will hold training sessions for its Certified Shari’a Adviser and Auditor (CSAA) and Certified Islamic Professional Accountant (CIPA) qualification programs from 24 to 27 March 2015.

Arab Petroleum Investments Corp (APICORP) has signed a two-part sharia-compliant facility worth $950 million that it will use to finance investments in regional energy projects, it said in a statement on Sunday. The bulk of the financing consisted of a SAR3 billion ($800 million) Islamic loan of five years duration that was provided by five Saudi banks: Banque Saudi Fransi, National Commercial Bank, Riyad Bank, Samba Financial Group and Saudi British Bank. The remainder was provided on a three year basis by First Gulf Bank, HSBC and National Bank of Abu Dhabi , the statement added.

Family businesses must adapt faster, innovate sooner and become more professional in the way they run their operations if they are to remain successful. These are some of the findings of the second PwC survey of 44 family firms in the Middle East, titled The family factor: Professionalising the Middle Eastern family firm. Overall, this year’s survey indicates that family firms remain dynamic and resilient. Indeed, family businesses in the Middle East have been markedly more successful than their global counterparts. Middle East family businesses are also more ambitious in the medium term. The report can be downloaded at www.pwc.com/familybusinesssurvey.

Bank Muscat's shareholders have approved the Board's recommendation for the setting up of a RO 500 million (or its equivalent in US Dollar currency) Meethaq Sukuk Programme for the issuance of sukuk in various tranches in the domestic and international markets through public subscription or private placement. The Sukuk tranches under the Meethaq Sukuk Programme will be in different amounts, maturities, and profit rates, issued on different dates with varying terms and conditions of subscription. All Sukuk will be issued within five years. Approval was also given to the Board's recommendations to issue convertible bonds.

The High Sharia Supervisory Authority held its inaugural meeting at the Central Bank of Oman HQ in Muscat with Sheikh Dr Kahlan bin Nabhan Al Kharoosi, Sheikh Dr Abdullatif bin Mahmood Al Mahmood, Dr Said Bouheraoua, Ahmed Suhaimi bin Yahya and Dr Yaqoob bin Mohammed Al Waily in attendance. The formation of the High Sharia Supervisory Authority is considered pivotal to the CBO's efforts to introduce Islamic banking to Oman in a way that is likely to match demand. Both standalone Islamic banks as well as Shari’ah compliant windows are allows in Oman, unlike neighbouring Qatar.

Oman's Bank Nizwa has launched a pioneering educational platform entitled 'Islamic Finance Knowledge Series', which aims to raise the community's awareness about Islamic banking across Oman. Jamil El Jaroudi, the bank's chief executive officer, noted that the new initiative is seeking to address the misconceptions about the concept of Islamic banking. El Jaroudi said that one mistaken belief is that it is more expensive to obtain financing from an Islamic bank than a conventional bank, which is not necessarily true. The sessions of the series will be delivered to both the public and private sector individuals, as well as college and university students.

Fast-paced economic growth in Qatar is supporting the takaful sector along with a keenness from policy makers to support the insurance market. At the same time, most of the mainstream takaful and retakaful companies in the region are currently undervalued compared to other sectors of the economy. Year 2015 continues to hold high hopes for takaful in Qatar and promises increased market penetration. However, sector executives appear not to be optimistic, with the Qatar Financial Centre’ Mena Insurance Barometer reporting that only 21% of participants expect the takaful segment to outgrow total insurance premiums in the next twelve months in 2015 same as in 2014, but compared with 32% in 2013.

According to the recently released “Global wealth management outlook 2014-15: New strategies for a changing industry” by Strategy&, the GCC has been the most consistent of the emerging markets, recording growth of 16 percent or more each year since 2010 and doubling total private wealth from $1.1 trillion to $2.2 trillion for an overall compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.5 percent. The UAE led the GCC countries with 25 percent CAGR, followed by Oman (21 percent) and Bahrain (18 percent), which grew from much smaller bases. Not surprisingly, high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) continue to account for the largest chunk of the region’s wealth at 41 percent.

In celebration of Global Money Week (GMW), SEDCO Holding Group is organizing the Second Financial Dignity Summit under the theme — Money and business — on March 17, in King Abdulaziz University (KAU). The summit will encompass several activities around financial dignity to raise awareness about saving and budgeting. The week-long summit has already simultaneously begun on March 10, during GMW. The summit agenda includes presentations by local successful entrepreneurs. During the summit, 5 shortlisted candidates for the Riyali Young Entrepreneurs’ award will be presenting their projects for a chance to win a substantial financial prize.

Qatar has called for a global regulatory framework for the industry, saying it is needed to ensure the sector's stability. An important task of the authority would, naturally, be to collect data on credit risks of Islamic financial institutions so that those risks could be identified, said the Governor of Qatar Central Bank (QCB). There are certain high-risk areas in the Islamic banking and financial sector and they, for example, include real estate and consumer lending to certain categories of people, H E Abdullah bin Sauod Al Thani said. Efforts have indeed been made to diversify Islamic financial products, but they are not enough.

The emirate of Ras Al-Khaimah has hired four banks to arrange fixed income investor meetings starting on Thursday for a potential US dollar-denominated sukuk offer, a document from lead arrangers showed. Ras Al-Khaimah has picked Al Hilal Bank, Citigroup, JP Morgan and National Bank of Abu Dhabi to arrange investor meetings in Asia, the Middle East and Europe, the document showed. Investor meetings will start in Singapore on Thursday, before moving to Kuala Lumpur on Friday, the UAE on Sunday and London on Monday.

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank said Sunday it has been shortlisted as a buyer for Citigroup 's Egypt retail business in what is set to be a heated battle to tap into one of the world's fastest growing economies. Mashreq and Emirates NBD are also reportedly bidding to buy Citi 's Egypt consumer banking network. Whoever wins this will have an advantage because Citibank has a good portfolio of clients, they have more than 100,000 credit cards, Tirad Al Mahmoud, ADIB's chief executive, said. Citi , which has also dropped its retail banking businesses in Turkey, Romania, Greece and Pakistan, has said it sees potential in other booming economies such as in Sub-Saharan Africa.