IslamicFinance.de

Dubai's Emirates NBD has coordinated a $500m Islamic law-compliant syndicated loan for the government of Pakistan. The loan was provided by a consortium of 12 banks and was oversubscribed by more than 40%. The consortium comprised Emirates NBD, Commercial Bank of Dubai, Noor Bank, Allied Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Mashreq Bank, Sharjah Islamic Bank, Samba Financial Group, Bank of Jordan, Habib Bank Limited and Union De Banques Arabes Et Francaises. The loan was organised as a murabaha.

Signs are everywhere in Asia that Islamic finance is expanding its frontiers. However, many Asian countries have yet to engage, while even those that have can still do much more to reap their benefits. Malaysia has been the biggest pioneer of the modern Islamic finance industry and dominates global sukuk issuance. Indonesia is another keen advocate of sukuk, both domestically and internationally, but has brought a much smaller $19bn worth of deals. Pakistan, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam and Hong Kong are also potential growth areas. Elsewhere, the market is at best in its nascent stages and very fractured. This, however, is seen as a cause for optimism by bankers.

Sedco Capital, the Saudi Arabia-based asset manager, has launched an investment platform of Sharia-compliant funds aimed at high net worth investors and institutional investors. The Sedco Capital Global Funds platform, a Luxembourg Sicav, currently has a choice of seven investment funds with total assets under management of more than $1bn. The plan is for the platform to include over 15 funds totalling more than $1.6bn by the end of 2013.