IslamicFinance.de

Omani real estate firm Tilal Development Company has persistently been asking the Capital Market Authority (CMA) for approval to raise funds by issuing a sukuk. According to Abdullah bin Salem Al Salmi - executive president of CMA - as soon as Tilal are ready with a plan, CMA are ready to grant them approval for raising money by means of sukuk. Currently, the next step is for Tilal to submit a formal application for the issue. CMA are encouraging companies to float sukuk issues. The only thing necessary for bringing regulation for sukuk is a minor amendment in the Capital Market Law.

Tilal Development Company turns to Capital Market Authority (CMA) for raising funds by the country's first sukuk issue. According to Abdullah bin Salem Al Salmi, executive president of CMA, they are ready to grant Tilal their approval as soon as the latter are ready with a plan. Al Salmi further added that Islamic financial instruments like sukuk are necessary for Islamic banks in order to invest their deposits. A lack of Islamic debt instruments could result in a deposit growth much higher than the anticipated growth in terms of assets which would make deposit investment very difficult.

UK-based law consultancy company Clifford Chance has prepared and handed over the draft law for forming Sharia-compliant takaful insurance firms and sukuk debt instruments. While a new set of law will serve as the rules takaful insurance companies, amendments will be made in Capital Market Law to accommodate Islamic debt instruments like sukuks. The final draft is expexted to be finished in about a month's time.

Oman’s Capital Market Authority (CMA) has disclosed to The Times of Oman that it will favour standalone Takaful companies, which is against the window operations proposed for conventional banks.
Abdullah bin Salem al Salmi, Acting Executive President of Capital Market Authority, noted that the minimum capital for promoting a Takaful insurance company is anticipated at OMR 10 million.
Moreover, a conventional insurance company planning to enter a Takaful business must search a separate licence and form a separate company.