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Dubai-based investment bank Arqaam Capital has hired ex-Credit Suisse banker Wafic Nsouli. He is expected to join Arqaam on March 18 and will take charge as executive director and head of institutional equity sales. Before joining Arqaam, Nsouli was head of Middle East and North Africa equities at Credit Suisse, responsible for the company's offices in Dubai and Saudi Arabia.

London-based Gatehouse Bank has completed the acquisition of a 163,000 sq ft, state of the art office building in Salt Lake City, Utah, which is 100% leased to the General Services Administration (GSA) for a fixed term of 20 years.
The deal is expected to return a stable and healthy yield over the investment period. Gatehouse Bank was assisted by Arch Street Capital Advisors and sister company GSH in this transaction.

BankIslami Pakistan Limited on Tuesday joined the Global Trade Finance Programme, which promotes trade in emerging markets by supporting the flow of goods and services. The programme was established by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), who will support BankIslami’s trade finance business by providing partial or full guarantees for individual trade transactions. Since the trade finance programme’s inception in Pakistan in 2006, IFC has provided more than 3,500 guarantees worth $1.74 billion to financial institutions.

EFG-Hermes Holding SAE (HRHO) said its sale to Qatar’s QInvest LLC has been delayed because of regulatory approvals. This is because the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority hasn’t yet approved the transfer of EFG-Hermes’ Egyptian assets to the new, Qatari-based entity. QInvest will invest $250 million in the venture, with the option to buy total ownership.

Al Salam Bank Bahrain acquired an equity stake in two new Boeing planes which are being leased long-term to Emirates Airlines. Thus, investors have the opportunity to benefit from a regular income stream with a yield of 9% p.a. secured by a top tier airline. The Bank retained a sizeable stake of the investment in the proprietary portfolio and sold down the remaining portion to its investors.

Fitch Ratings has affirmed Dubai Islamic Bank’s (DIB) Long-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at ‘A’. This is due to the bank’s systemic importance and the Dubai government’s 30 per cent stake. Hence, there is a high probability of support from UAE authorities if needed. The bank’s Viability Rating (VR) at ‘bb’ reflects the domestic operating environment and DIB’s asset quality among others. The Long-term IDR is expected to be stable.

José Graziano da Silva - Director-General of Food and Agriculture Organization - and Ilse Aigner - the German Minister of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection - have pointed out the importance of a significant increase in responsible investments in agriculture. Thus the issue of eradicating hunger and feeding a growing world population can be addressed. They further explained that investments in regions with severe rural poverty and hunger are still too low. Efforts should be concentrated on farmers because they play a key role in the rural environment.

Al Dahra, an Abu Dhabi-based company, announced the investment of around 200 million Euros in Serbia's agriculture. 100 million Euros will be invested in the new irrigation system in order to boost production, and 100 million in the takeover of 80 percent stake in eight state-controlled agricultural companies. The investment in irrigation is expected to pay off in three to five years.

NCB Capital has launched AlAhli Global Natural Resource Fund aiming to enrich investment portfolios with natural resources due to rising demand for those in emerging markets. Investors are given the opportunity to achieve capital growth by investing primarily in the listed shares of international companies that are involved in the natural resource related sectors. AlAhli Global Natural Resource Fund is a Shariah-compliant fund denominated in US Dollars with a minimum subscription amount of $2000, managed by investment professionals.

Fimbank is about to make the first step into introducing Islamic banking to Malta. Provided that Middle Eastern institutional investors take a controlling interest in the near future, the bank will be able to expand into new markets and target larger clients. Fimbank has a commitment for additional equity of $160 million. According to the bank's president Margrith Lütschg-Emmenegger, it has the potential to triple or even quadruple its balance sheet over the next five years. She further stressed on the bank's striving towards a major strategic turning point. This will be possible if shareholders allow the joint offer by Kuwait-licensed Burgan Bank SAK and Bahrain-licensed United Gulf Bank BSC at the extraordinary general meeting on January 31st.

This year, contracts worth $159 billion are to be awarded across the Middle East. Project finance loans are expected to grow almost 15% this year. It is expected that the area of project finance will grow from about $35 billion in 2012 to about $40 billion due to the increase in significance of infrastructure demand. On February 17-20 the Qatar Projects 2013 conference will be held in Doha, organized by Meed Events. The key part of the event will be a comprehensive review of contract financing opportunities and challenges in Qatar.

Abu Dhabi Equity Partners (ADEP) closes first Sharia-compliant agricultural inventory finance transaction in Brazil. The investment deal is a combination of a mix of asset backed financing, capital and profit protection from Global investment bank, five to ten times US Dollar deposit yield pick-up, and global trading houses as counterparties. According to the Managing Partner of the company - Mr. Muneef O. Tarmoom - the combination of "back-to-basics" physical asset backed financing and Global 'A' rated banks' capital and profit protection features enables ADEP to originate financing opportunities with a yeald 5 to 10 times larger than current US Dollar murabaha rates. The company's landmark Brazilian agri-based inventory transaction shall serve to finance a leading sugar and ethanol producer in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul.

Dear Reader,

Islamic finance had another great year. Many of its market segments progressed, like for example the Sukuk market gaining more maturity. Despite the ongoing debt crisis a good sign of hope and happiness.

Nevertheless we are - as an industry - still not satisfied with the achievements. Islamic finance shall grow stronger in terms of social impact and in terms of substance:

Hence, please allow me to re-iterate my call for participating in international initiatives beyond just our own industry to learn and spread knowledge and experience:

Calling Islamic financial institutions to become member of the United Nations Finance Initiative
http://www.islamicfinance.de/?q=node/811

Inshallah we see more Islamic financial institutions taking a lead in SRI, Social Impact Investing and other approaches while contributing with Islamic finance knowdledge to the conventional industry. The time is now; and there are signs that Malaysia aims for a lead:
http://www.islamicfinance.de/?q=node/4151

Indian Islamic finance industry is still facing legal obstacles on allowing Sharia-compliant banking products in the country. Indian Muslim minority which is the largest in the word, nowadays cannot access Islamic financial services as the sector requires banking to be based on interest, which is forbidden in Islam. The issue of Islamic finance is being studied by the Reserve Bank of India since 2005.

Maximizing the Arab world's gains from energy resources is possible through cross-border collaboration. Since a large number of opportunities are currently available, energy resources can be piped and distributed across the region through a regional energy grid. 60% of the world’s proven oil and 40% of gas reserves are held by the region. The energy demand in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region has grown 500% over the last 30 years, thus representing a highly beneficial target for energy trade.

Arab investors in a €400m (US$516m) French property fund operated by Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) are seriously thinking about legal action because they have received neither any dividend nor audited financial statements on the fund's status for the last three years. The launch of the Al Rayyan II French Property Fund took place in 2005. It is managed by Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) on behalf of DIB. The fund was used to invest in several income-producing properties in France. Initially, a yearly return of around 8% was given to the investors.

Emirates Islamic Bank (EIB) announced the successful integration of of Dubai Bank customers, branches and operations into its platform. The most branches have now been converted to EIB systems and brand. The remaining ones will undergo conversion at the beginning of December. EIB further explained that customers whose accounts have been migrated from Dubai Bank will receive new account numbers. The old account numbers and existing identification will still be valid for the foreseeable future across all banking channels.

Bank Nizwa has given a request to deploy their funds abroad to Oman's central bank for consideration. Thus, Bank Nizwa will be able to get returns instead of keeping the money idle until the bank starts operation. The capital base of Bank Nizwa is OR150m, compared to that Alizz Islamic Bank's paid up capital is as high as OR100m.

CMA Board of Commissioners' resolution concerning its approval for Alinma Investment Company's offer of "Alinma Multi Assets Defensive Fund" and "Alinma Multi Assets Aggressive Fund" has been issued.

During 2012, members of Aman Union have provided $ 17.4 billion for investment and export insurance for OIC countries. According to Secretary-General Dr. Abdel-Rahman Taha, this contribution by the union is 17.6% higher than the one in 2010. He further expressed deep concern about the uncertain economic outlook which prevails globally.