Goldman Sachs International announced last September that it was going to the market to raise financing totaling $2 billion through a Murabaha sukuk issuance.
The issuance is based on a structure accepted by Dar Al-Istithmar Limited, the Shariah adviser to the issuer, Global Sukuk Company Limited, whose Shariah Supervisory Board is chaired by Hussain Hamed Hassan and includes Ali Al-Qaradaghi, Abdul Sattar Abu Ghuddah, Abdulaziz Fawzan Saleh Al-Fawzan and Aznan Hasan.
The issuance would have passed as a routine Murabaha sukuk save that the issuer was doing it on behalf of arguably the most high profile investment bank in the world, Goldman Sachs.
Gasprombank is building support for Sukuk but Russian legislation is missing. Executives from Gazprombank have been collecting interest in South East Asia. It seems that Alexander Kazakov, director of structured and syndicated finance at the bank, is claiming up to five companies were interested in Sukuk issuance.
AmanahRaya is also working to establish Kaz Haj, a pilgrimage fund, along with Kazakhstan's Islamic asset management company, Fattah Finance.
On the other hand, Aznan Hasan, Associate Professor at the International Islamic University Malaysia, warns that Russia will need to address its legal framework before Shari’ah-compliant transactions can go ahead.
Malaysia, the world’s largest market for sukuk, plans to improve its legal system to become an alternative location to the U.K. for resolving international Islamic finance disputes. The goal is to position Malaysian laws as the law of choice for Islamic finance transactions globally. Disputes about Shariah principles are a risk to the market for sukuk, bonds complying with Islam’s ban on payment of interest. Persian Gulf companies have traditionally based cross-border contracts on U.K. law to take advantage of the country’s developed legal system and neutrality, according to Unicorn Investment Bank BSC. The challenge will be to gain acceptance in the Middle East because of different religious interpretations in various jurisdictions. A group of scholars in Kuala Lumpur is helping to set up a committee to prepare the first global certification for Shariah experts said Aznan Hasan, the president of the oversight committee