'Shariah' Bankruptcy Gets An OK

A U.S. judge Tuesday approved Arcapita Bank B.S.C.'s plan to gradually liquidate itself in a process that conforms with Islamic Shariah law, which generally prohibits borrowing money with interest. The Bahrain-based investment firm entered bankruptcy protection last year with a goal of restructuring itself but ended up with a plan to orderly liquidate its private-equity investments. The modified proposal solved several concerns from creditors, including creating a new entity that will retain the firm’s management, and setting a minimum valuation for the company’s remaining assets. Arcapita manages infrastructure, real-estate, private-equity and venture-capital investments that are compliant with Shariah.