IslamicFinance.de

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) has launched a remote sales platform allowing customers to converse with the bank and apply for personal finance, covered cards, takaful, and other banking products without having to leave their homes. A first of its kind in the UAE, the platform is equipped with virtual banking tools, including online application and electronic signature services. The platform also integrates virtual communications tools, including video conferencing and real-time screen sharing, to boost collaboration between customers and sales representatives. ADIB has seen a significant surge in customer demand for its digital banking services in 2020. Around 94% of ADIB’s banking transactions are conducted digitally and 65% of customer updates are made through the bank’s digital channels. In addition, 50% of new ADIB customers have opened their accounts digitally.

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank launched a sales platform that allows customers to communicate remotely with the bank and apply for personal finance products, covered cards, takaful products and other banking solutions without having to leave their homes. This platform is the first of its kind in the UAE, and it is equipped with a set of virtual banking tools, including an electronic application and electronic signature services. Since its launch, more than half of the bank’s card sales are executed via the platform remotely.

United Arab Emirates energy firm Dana Gas has raised a $90 million loan allowing it to redeem $309 million in bonds due at the end of October and avoid a third debt restructuring. The company has obtained a one-year $90 million loan from Mashreq Bank. The new loan will be repaid when Dana completes a planned sale of its Egyptian assets. The firm shook the global Islamic finance industry in 2017, when it said it would not redeem its $700 million sukuk, arguing they were no longer valid under UAE law because of changes in Islamic financial practice. After a protracted legal battle, it reached an agreement with creditors in 2018. That restructuring followed an earlier one in 2012.

First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) said it was not in merger talks with Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank. Citing unnamed sources, Bloomberg reported in April 2019 that Abu Dhabi was considering merging the two lenders to create the Gulf region's largest lender. There has been speculation over the past year of more banking tie-ups in light of a wave of consolidation sweeping Abu Dhabi. With around 50 banks, the crowded UAE banking sector has been squeezed by lower government spending and thinner profit margins.

Dubai-based asset manager Shuaa Capital has launched three new sharia-compliant funds on the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM). The open-ended funds – Shuaa High Yield Sukuk Fund, Nujoom Aggressive Fund and Nujoom Balanced Fund – are backed by US$75 million in capital. Shuaa Capital is targeting long-term institutional investors including pension funds and insurers and will offer the funds via the Allfunds Bank platform. According to Shuaa Capital chief executive, Jassim Alseddiqi, the supply of sharia funds still lags the demand among investors.

Hesham Abdulla Al Qassim, Chairman of Emirates Islamic rang the market-opening bell to celebrate the listing by Emirates Islamic of a 500 million US dollar Sukuk on Nasdaq Dubai. The Bank achieved a profit rate of 1.827%, the lowest for a Sukuk issued by a UAE bank for 10 years, with subscription of 2.4 times. The issuance was rated A+ by Fitch Ratings. The nominal value of Sukuk currently listed in Dubai has reached 73.99 billion US dollars, one of the largest totals of any listing centre in the world. Following Emirates Islamic’s latest listing, 46% of Sukuk listings in Dubai by value are from UAE issuers and 54% from overseas issuers.

The value of new sukuk listings on Nasdaq Dubai since the beginning of 2020 until mid-September reached $ 11.4 billion, an increase of 55% over the value of sukuk listed in the same period last year. The total value of the sukuk listed in Dubai (between Nasdaq Dubai and the Dubai Financial Market) currently stands at $ 73.49 billion, making the emirate one of the largest sukuk listing centers in the world. The sukuk issuers on Nasdaq Dubai this year varied between Emirati and foreign countries, including Sharjah Islamic Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, Dubai World Ports, GFH (from Bahrain), Dar Al Arkan (from Saudi Arabia), the Indonesian government, and the Islamic Development Bank.

The Dubai Islamic Economy Development Centre (DIEDC), in collaboration with the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Refinitiv hosted the fourth session of the GIES Virtual Series webinar that examined the opportunities and challenges in the sukuk market. Moderator Tahir Mahmood, Head of Business Development at Nasdaq Dubai, discussed the emerging trends in the sukuk market and examined various outlooks for the sector. During the session, panellists agreed that the sukuk market has done well over the past year. The fifth session of the GIES Virtual Series, titled ‘The New Age of Digital Retail in light of the Pandemic', is scheduled for Tuesday, 13 October at 11am (UAE time).

Russian state-owned Sberbank will establish a presence in Abu Dhabi by the end of the year. Sberbank has also signed an agreement with Abu Dhabi sovereign investor Mubadala Investment Company. The agreement covers cooperation in areas including co-investments, debt and equity financing, long-term financing of Mubadala projects in Russia and other territories. It also includes the potential cooperation and investments in a broad range of areas including Islamic finance, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, life sciences, venture capital, telemedicine and education. The bank is new to Islamic finance. In August it announced that it had structured a trade finance deal, its first-ever, with the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC).

Amanat Holdings, Aldar Properties, and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company for Distribution (ADNOC Distribution) were added to the S&P UAE Domestic Shariah Liquid 35/20 Capped Index. In August the ADX and DFM listed Chimera Capital’s Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), designed to replicate the S&P UAE Domestic Shariah Liquid 35/20 Capped Index which tracks the performance of UAE-based Shariah-compliant liquid equities.

The Dubai Islamic Economy Development Centre (DIEDC) recently held its third virtual board meeting of 2020. Dubai has successfully positioned itself as a prestigious regional centre that offers significant opportunities to traders and investors. DIEDC’s board discussed the GIES Virtual Series that is organised in collaboration with the Centre’s strategic partners, to prepare for the upcoming Global Islamic Economy Summit in 2021. With four webinars already held to date, the virtual series is set to continue until end-2020. With the participation of leading local, regional and international industry experts, the virtual webinars have highlighted many topics of interest to Islamic economy stakeholders.

Emirates Islamic has closed a $500 million five-year sukuk forming part of its $2.5 billion 'Certificate Issuance Programme'. The issue, rated A+ by Fitch, will be listed on Nasdaq Dubai and Euronext Dublin. Bank ABC, Citigroup, Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD Capital, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank and The Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector acted as joint lead managers and bookrunners. Investors showed strong appetite, ensuring an order book of $1.2 billion and nearly 2.4 times the issuance size with a profit rate of 1.827 per cent. This is the lowest achieved by a UAE bank in the past 10 years.

Emirates Islamic Bank has hired banks to arrange the issuance of U.S. dollar-denominated five-year sukuk.
It hired Emirates NBD Capital, HSBC, The Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector, and Standard Chartered to arrange investor calls that started on Monday.

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) has partnered with the UAE’s Ministry of Finance (MoF) to offer the new range of eDirham cards. eDirham cards offer a smart payment method accepted by more than 5,000 government services in ministries, federal and local authorities. The system offers many advantages, including low costs and the possibility of paying service fees through different payment channels, which include eDirham apps for phones, e-wallet, vouchers, and self-service eKiosks. The ADIB eDirham Gold and ADIB eDirham Signature cards represent the third generation of the eDirham cashless payment service.

Dubai made a rare foray into public bond markets, revealing that its debt burden is now a lot smaller than estimated by analysts only months ago. The emirate’s outstanding direct debt stood at 123.5 billion dirhams ($33.6 billion) as of June 30. That’s about 28% of last year’s gross domestic product. Dubai's economy is heavily dependent on tourism, trade and retail, sectors hardest hit by the emergency. The global pandemic forced Dubai to delay this year’s World Expo. The government revised this year’s budget revenue to 44.2 billion dirhams down more than 30% from what it originally envisaged. It also decreased its projected expenditure to 56.2 billion dirhams for 2020, leaving a deficit of 11.9 billion dirhams. Dubai owes a total of $20 billion to the Abu Dhabi government and the UAE central bank, an amount it used to support strategic entities that required financial assistance.

The targets set by the UAE to prepare the country’s economy for a post-hydrocarbon era have been very ambitious. As part of its economic diversification actions, the UAE has undertaken to increase the clean energy contribution to the total energy mix from 0.2% in 2014, to 24% by 2021. In the UAE Energy Strategy 2050, a target is set of cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 70% by 2050 and increasing the use of clean energy to meet 50% of the country’s energy needs by the same year. The Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 similarly sets out the emirate’s aim of transforming Dubai into a global clean energy centre. These goals will require considerable capital investment. However, while other centres for Islamic finance have seen a growing number of responsible finance sukuk issuances, there have been noticeably fewer issuances in the UAE. Mobilising private sector finance through responsible financing activities will be critical in helping the UAE government to meet its extensive sustainability targets.

Dubai has hired banks to arrange investor calls ahead of a potential sale of U.S. dollar-denominated 10-year sukuk and 30-year conventional bonds. Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD Capital, First Abu Dhabi Bank, HSBC, and Standard Chartered are mandated to arrange the calls. The benchmark issuance is part of a $6 billion sukuk issuance programme and of a $5 billion bond issuance programme. The new issuance could bolster the finances of the Middle East trade, finance and tourism hub, which has been hit hard by the coronavirus crisis this year.

The Authority of Social Contribution, Ma’an, is urging all social entrepreneurs in the UAE and wider MENA region to complete the online application, as the Authority announces an extension for registrations until 12th September. The teams shortlisted for the Social Incubator programme will aim to strengthen the interactions and create stronger emotional bonding between parents, children, relatives, the elderly and couples across the Emirate and highlight the importance of family values. Ma’an will shortlist and support 10 winning social start-ups, who will then undergo a 90 day training programme and develop their ideas into business ventures. Ma’an will invest more than AED 2 million in total in this cycle with the successful applicants also having access to milestone-based funding, mentorship, office space, business expertise and investors.

Arcapita Group and Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding sold their ownership stake in Abu Dhabi-based NAS Neuron Health Services. The two companies partnered to acquire an equity stake in NAS United Healthcare Services in 2017. Umair Nizami is the Managing Director of Neuron, as well as CEO of Dubai Wing. NAS Neuron is one of the largest private TPAs of medical claims in the GCC region.

The UAE's first exchange traded fund tracking a Sharia-compliant index began trading on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange and the Dubai Financial Market. Bourses in the the region are ramping up efforts to diversify their product offerings to attract more foreign direct investment. Chimera Capital listed its Chimera S&P UAE Shariah ETF, which is designed to replicate the S&P UAE Domestic Shariah Liquid 35/20 Capped Index. The Chimera S&P UAE Shariah ETF is structured and built by S&P and monitored by a Shariah board that meets regularly to review and re-balance the index quarterly. Currently the index has ten securities across the two UAE markets. The fund has a total market capitalisation of Dh234 billion and assets under management of Dh934,839.