IslamicFinance.de

The Board of the Islamic Development Bank approved an operation plan for the new fiscal year 2014-2015 at its 300th meeting held on 19 -22 October in Jeddah. According to the Bank, the plan has a budget of US$ 5.1 billion not including the administrative budget for the Bank and its Funds and Programs. The Bank also approved US$ 814.2 million for development financing. Amongst the approvals of the Board was US$ 230.2 million for Development of Sharm El –Sheikh International Airport Project (Phase-II) – Egypt. IDB has already contributed US$ 226.8 million to the project and with the new approval IDB contribution to the project reaches US$ 457 million.

Kuwait Finance House (KFH) said its net profit fell 10.2 per cent in the third quarter to September. It fell to 35.5 million Kuwaiti dinars in the third quarter compared to 39.2 million in the same quarter last year. Total assets jumped to 17.1 billion dinars in the third quarter as against 14.7 billion dinars in the same period last year. The company’s financing income, which contributed to 76 per cent of its revenues, jumped the most by 35 per cent to 185 million dinars. However, investment income fell by 66 per cent to 24 million dinars. Total deposits reached 10.9 billion Kuwaiti dinars, up 7.5 per cent compared to December 2013. Chairman Hamad Al-Marzouq said that the achieved results come amid major changes taking place in the bank.

A rapid rise of young population in the GCC is causing a surge in demand for housing that could lead to a massive shortage. There could be a scarcity of more than one million units by 2018, reveals a study by management consultancy Strategy& (formerly Booz & Company), and governments need to pursue more holistic policies to better meet people’s housing needs. Governments should drive sustainable development, promote public-private partnerships, establish prudent real estate laws and facilitate greater access to housing finance to revitalise the sector, the study adds. GCC countries are currently experiencing a shortage of housing, particularly for their large and growing populations of low-income residents.

Dear Reader,

Please visit the following sites to see the latest updates in the Islamic finance job market:

http://www.islamicfinancejobs.com/

http://www.bayt.com/en/international/jobs/q/islamic-finance/

https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/search?keywords=Islamic&locationType=Y&ori...

http://www.naukrigulf.com/islamic-finance-jobs

https://www.gulftalent.com

http://www.gulfbankers.com/home/index

http://www.efinancialcareers.ch/search?keywords=islamic

http://www.isdbcareers.com

https://jobs.thelawyer.com/jobs/islamic-finance/

Best regards,

Michael Gassner

Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry's Sustainability Network members, in cooperation with the United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP), took part in a 'Rice Bowl Challenge' to raise awareness amongst employees on the issue of hunger and mobilise funds for WFP in the fight against world hunger on World Food Day. The Rice Bowl Challenge was a call to corporates to replace their regular lunch with a bowl of plain rice for the day. It was carried out under the umbrella of 'Eat and Feed' a fundraising initiative by the Al Aroud Group a member of the Dubai Chamber Sustainability Network. The funds collected will go to the WFP to provide food assistance to families most in need across the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia's National Commercial Bank is going ahead with an initial public offering worth $6 billion despite opposition from Muslim clerics. The IPO from Sunday, making NCB the last Saudi bank to go public, is expected to be one of the largest in the world this year. However, Abdullah al-Mutlaq, a member of the kingdom's official Council of Senior Ulemas, said that the IPO is haram, or forbidden under Islamic tenets which ban usury. On the other hand, NCB's sharia advisory council on Thursday declared the share offer to be acceptable under Islamic law. An NCB prospectus says the bank will offer 300 million shares to the public at 45 riyals ($12) each, for a value of $3.6 billion, while another 200 million shares will be allocated to the state pension agency bringing the total to $6 billion.

Low-cost carrier flydubai is in talks with its advisers for a potential bond issuance. Earlier reports citing unnamed sources, Dubai’s low cost airline had mandated seven banks — Credit Agricole, Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD, HSBC, National Bank of Abu Dhabi, Noor Bank and Standard Chartered — to arrange a potential debut sukuk issue

The investor group has acquired a significant minority stake in Gems Education’s emerging markets business, covering the Middle East, North Africa and East Asia.
Mumtalakat Holding Company, the investment arm of Bahrain, and Tactical Opportunities funds managed by Blackstone are the other partners in the investment consortium. Gems Education, a UAE-grown global brand that was founded 54 years ago, and is now the world’s largest provider of K-12 private education — operating more than 50 schools, educating over 140,000 students and employing over 13,000 people across 19 markets in the Middle East, North America, Europe, Asia and Africa.

The Middle East conflict raises concerns over the general outlook for the sukuk market. But portfolio managers remain positive both on fundamentals and technicals for sukuk as they also offer a potentially attractive alternative amid prospects of rising interest rates. Sukuk are considered as an attractive option for those whose mandate allows to test new boundaries. Mohieddine Kronfol, chief investment officer of Global Sukuk and MENA fixed income at Franklin Templeton Investments said, that "the lower duration and persistent strong demand from Islamic financial institutions should continue to support the market and allow it to perform well relative to other fixed income sectors, particularly those that have higher average durations."

The resignation if Dr Ayoub follows his appointment as Assistant Secretary General with the Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia-based Islamic Financial Services Board. His new role as a regulator in the IFSB requires him to avoid any direct and official association with a regulated entity.

The GCC Islamic Finance industry is expected to maintain its rapid growth over the coming years despite mixed results across sectors in 2014.
The industry’s expansion is expected to be driven by the GCC’s robust economic prospects, continued infrastructure needs and rising issuance from governments and government-related entities.

The Bahrain’s stock exchange has plans to launch a financing tool and real estate investment trusts. The range of Islamic investment products will include a novel equity-based murabaha financing tool and Islamic real estate investment trusts. It is seeking to attract regional funds from bigger markets such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates; Islamic financial products are a major part of the strategy. The exchange aims to host trading of sukuk (Islamic bonds), which at present is mostly done over the counter, said Shaikh Khalifa bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa.

The Al Hilal Bank was chosen from a diverse pool of GGC candidates this year, representing companies from a cross-section of industry sectors. GGCs currently come from more than 65 countries. The Al Hilal Bank is now part of the ‘New Champions,’ a larger WEF community of pioneers, disruptors and innovators. It will be able to contribute to the Forum’s platform of meetings, projects and knowledge products for pursuing responsible and sustainable growth.

Sukuk issuance and investing is expanding outside of the Islamic world. The asset holders range from sovereign wealth funds and high-net-worth-individuals in the Arab Gulf, to retail investors in other Muslim majority countries such as Turkey, Pakistan and Indonesia. According to Moody’s Investors Service, Malaysia at present dominates the sukuk market when it comes to both sovereign and corporate issuance. Other major issuers include the governments of Indonesia and Gulf states including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The overall outstanding amount of sukuk will probably reach around $115 billion this year.

Fujairah has launched its first dedicated Islamic bank, NBF Islamic. It will offer a suite of retail banking products catering to key customer financial requirements and will be available across the UAE through NBF's branch network. The smaller emirates are already represented in the Islamic banking arena through Sharjah Islamic Bank and AMAL Rakbank.

Fitch Ratings has cautioned that the ratings of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) privately-owned corporates are being constrained by relatively weaker corporate governance than their developed market peers. The ratings agency said in a statement that this is mainly due to the absence of an effective independent board, weak transparency and limited disclosure practices and a move in this direction will still take time.

As Islamic bond issuance heads for a record year, nations making up the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council are losing share to new borrowers such as the U.K., Hong Kong and South Africa. Global sales of Shariah-compliant debt reached $36.7 billion. GCC market share fell down from more than 50 percent a year earlier as Bloomberg figures show. With non-Muslim countries being lured by the growing Islamic investor base.

Seattle-based Falah Capital is preparing to launch an Islamic exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks large U.S. stocks, the latest sharia-compliant product in a market. The ETF will be advised by Exchange Traded Concepts and Mellon Capital Management, with Bahrain-based Shariyah Review Bureau acting as sharia advisor, according to a filing with the SEC.

A bank has denied losing a businessman's title deeds. Gulf African says the documents were lost by its contracted courier – Data Rush Courier Services Ltd - in the course of delivery. Hashim Kher, the director of Al Heelam Holdings, sued the bank over the lost title deeds. Kher informed them that he wanted another bank to take over the debt. In a letter to the National Bank he seeked Sh65 million to facilitate the takeover of the debt from the bank.

The Pakistani unit of Bahrain's Al Baraka Banking Group has raised 2 billion rupees ($19.5 million) via the country's first issuance of subordinated sukuk, or Islamic bonds. The seven-year private placement is the first to be issued by an Islamic bank in Pakistan, according to Abdullah Ghaffar, head of investment banking at Al Baraka Bank Pakistan.

Due to the phasing in of Basel III global banking standards around the globe, several Islamic banks have issued subordinated instruments in order to raise capital, including those in Turkey, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.