IslamicFinance.de

Nakheel revealed the fact that he wants to construct 102 beachfront townhouses on the Palm Jumeirah, and at the same time the company exposed that the value of its sukuk is undervalued on the marketplace.
Rashid Ali, Nakheel’s chairman, stated that its aim is to have the same as last year. He also added that Nakheel is confident of delivering new projects over the next few years.
Although Nakheel has successfully completed its financial restructuring, it is aspiring to extend its retail business and increase community services such as the expansion of Dragon Mart Mall and the construction of two new Neighborhood Community Centers.

Allianz Takaful and MedGulf are partnering for the markets of Bahrain and Qatar to further develop their insurance platforms. In order to start this, Allianz Takaful will transfer 75 percent of Allianz Takaful to MedGulf BSC (Bahrain).
The whole range of takaful and insurance products in the market of Bahrain and Life and Health products in Qatar will still be sold by Allianz Takaful.

In late 2012, Bursa Malaysia will advocate the launch of an ESG Index. Similarly, Hong Kong and Singapore stock exchanges have taken on their own action to guarantee that both government and corporations step up in their social responsibility to build a more sustainable future.
Key leaders from various industries will come together at this year's CSR Asia Summit in Kuala Lumpur on 27 and 28 September to discuss CSR developments across four themes: Asian CSR strategies; environmental issues; community investment; and, sustainable supply chains and food security.

Hussein Hassan is the former head of Islamic finance of Deutsche Bank. He moved to UBS in Dubai as Global Head of Islamic Finance. It seems that his place was taken by Ilker Guney, a managing director at the firm.

Islamic Development Bank (IDB) is enthusiastic to evolve Waqf properties in India and the two sides have investigated ways to cooperate in different fields including launching of Islamic banking in the country.
It seems that the bank has agreed to finance not only Waqf properties in India but also to develop seven Rubaats (Haj shelters) in Makkah for pilgrims' accommodation.

The Second Annual Islamic Finance Forum will gather investors, borrowers and regulators in the same place to accomplish a better understanding of existing instruments of Islamic Finance and to find answers to problems encountered frequently in the course of doing business.
The forum delegates is amde of representatives from the Embassies of UAE, Malaysia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Russia, Kyrgyzstan and other countries.

It seems that Khazanah Nasional Bhd. hired BOC International, CIMB Group Holdings Bhd and Royal Bank for a sale of the world's first yuan-denominated Islamic bonds in Hong Kong.
The offering will help Malaysia maintain its strengt and position as the world's biggest launcher of sukuk.

Khazanah Nasional is planning to launch renminbi-denominated sukuk, making it the first-ever Islamic financing in Hong Kong’s booming Dim Sum market.
It seems that Khazanah's target is 500 million renminbi (US$77.5mil) with a tenor of five years, although a three-year piece was also in discussion.

The 2nd Quarter 2011 issue of the Malaysian ICM quarterly bulletin published by the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) is now available online at:
http://www.sc.com.my/eng/html/icm/11_2Q_msianicm.pdf

Discussions on strengthening the Islamic funds and investments industry and building international growth by tapping into new jurisdictions will be held at the 7th annual World Islamic Funds and Financial Markets Conference (WIFFMC 2011).
The theme of the conference is intitled ‘achieving international scale and creating a vibrant Islamic financial market and re-invigorating the Islamic investments industry’. It will brinf together more than 400 key players, regulators and thought leaders in the industry on September 26-27 in Bahrain.

Arcapita Bank had a net income of $50.2 million, registering a return to profitability for the bank, which along with its peers in the private equity industry, has gone through a tough operating environment in the aftermath of the financial crisis which began in 2008.
Beside its core business of deal-by-deal investments, Arcapita has made advancement in building its funds product offering, building on its track record in the industrial warehousing sector to expand several funds during the year, in Asia, in Europe and in the Middle East.

Dow Jones has issued a family of risk control indices and one targeting the Islamic investment market. The Dow Jones Volatility Risk Control offers access to Europe, the Eurozone and the Bric countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) through the Dow Jones Europe Titans 80, Dow Jones Eurozone Titans 80 and the Dow Jones Bric 50
It seems that this is the first risk control index under the Dow Jones brand.

It seems that Dubai’s Islamic bonds are dropping not only the debt of energy-rich Abu Dhabi and Qatar, as investors avoid the region’s riskier assets after slowing global economic growth crimps oil demand.
HSBC/Nasdaq Dubai GCC US Dollar Sukuk Index and the HSBC/Nasdaq Dubai US Dollar Sukuk Index stated that the breach between Islamic bonds in the Gulf and those in emerging markets rose six basis points in the past month to 36 on September 9.

Nakheel brought upon itself impairments of 73.8 billion dirhams in 2009, primarily related to the carrying value of assets and capital work in progress.
I seems that after just finishing a complex debt restructuring last month, the company devalued up to 78.6 billion dirhams ($21.4 billion) of its real estate assets due to a property crisis in the emirate.
The Dubai government along with another debt ridden property firm Limitless will control from now on the comapny.

Standard and Poor’s (S&P) stated that Turkey’s participation (Islamic banks) “could continue their recent strong growth if they can cultivate stronger ties with their international owners and create a sustainable brand image,”. This puts ground to an Islamic finance market which is as old as the one in Malaysia and others in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
Turkiye Finans, Kuveyt Turk Participation Bank (KTPB) and Albaraka Turk Participation Bank (ATPB) have got majority GCC ownership interests. Asya Participation Bank (APB) has arranged a joint venture with the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), the private sector funding arm of the Islamic Development Bank Group (IDB), called Tamweel Africa which invests in financial institutions, leasing entities and extends lines of credit to finance trade in sub-Saharan Africa.

Three local Islamic investment banks that are looking to merge are being advised by Kuwait Finance House - Bahrain (KFH-Bahrain).
Abdulhakeem Alkhayyat, managing director and chief executive officer, refused to reveal the name of the three banks.
The bank continued to extend its presence in Bahrain's competitive banking sector and empowered its expansion plans with the official opening of its branch at Isa Town Mall.

Mefcom Capital Markets together with UK-based merchant bank Beaufort will supply various cross-border financial services to corporates and other investor classes. Furthermore, they will arrange Sharia- compliant investment products and plans to give the investors access to markets in India, Mid-East, the UK and Europe.
Mefcom-Beufort would provide its clients services allied to cross-border corporate advisory and due diligence work, brand franchising and international licensing transactions, listing and capital raising activities, private equity, investor roadshows, wealth management and stock broking and more others.

Banks from Japan to Bahrain are aiming to open offices in Malaysia to take advantage of the growth in Islamic finance assets in the world’s biggest sukuk market.
Mizuho Financial Group Inc has applied for a licence to offer foreign-currency Syariah-compliant services in the country. An aproximatly equal licence was given to Bahrain’s Elaf Bank B.S.C. in June.

Dr Nabeel Al-Mannae is the new Independent Non-Executive Chairman and Director of Kuwait Finance House (Malaysia) Berhad (KFH Malaysia).
Dr Nabeel has a PhD in Economics from the University of Miami, Florida, Masters of Arts (Economics) from Florida International University and a Degree in Commerce (Economics) from the Kuwait University.

The Gulf credit market finds himself in a comparatively strong position to weather volatility in global markets. That is because of the fact that their external trade patterns are more related to Asia and the rich hydrocarbon resources provide large current account surpluses.
As a conclusion, one can say that the Gulf , although not immune to, is protected from shocks of the world economy.