IslamicFinance.de

As salamu Alaikum,
Next saturday, May 13, 2023, at 15.00 I present as guest of Muslim Student Association in Zurich (@msazurich) on the 1st chapter of my book and then go into the banking crisis and money creation. The talk is in English.

Physical
???? Samstag, 13. Mai 2023
? 15:00 - 17:00
???? Building KAB, floor G, room 01
????? Kantonsschulstrasse 3, 8001 Zürich

Physical attendance - registration linked at @msazurich and in my link tree in Insta profile. (just confirm lengthy privacy in German).
Talk online accessible without registration: Click on Linktr.ee/islamgeldwohlstand - presentation on bigbluebutton/senfcall similar to zoom - no installation required or instagram @islamgeldwohlstand

My German book "Islam, Geld und Wohlstand - Ein Handbuch über Finanzen und Vorsorge" can be obtained:
Instagram:
DE: @islambooks24
CH: @IslamShop.ch
or any other bookstore or online dealer in German speaking countries - if you are publisher interested for your country, please contact me.

The Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) announced successful completion of the pricing of a five-year USD 600 million Sukuk issuance at MS + 140bps. This is the largest Sukuk issuance by ICD since inception and double the amount from its inaugural issuance in 2016 of USD300 million, despite the institution’s absence from the capital markets over the last four years. ICD attracted very strong investor response despite a slightly weaker market sentiment. The orderbook exceeded USD 1.5 billion and ICD released a price guidance at MS + 160 bps area. The Sukuk was priced 20 basis points from guidance pricing.

The world’s fourth largest cocoa grinder Guan Chong (GCB) is undertaking a sukuk exercise for its future expansion plans. It is launching a sukuk wakalah programme of up to RM800mil in nominal value. According to managing diector Brandon Tay Hoe Lian, proceeds from the first tranche of issuance of RM300mil will go towards funding the ongoing construction of a new cocoa grinding facility in Ivory Coast, which is set to commence operations in the second half of 2021. The programme will also support the company's expansion in Europe, following the acquisitions of industrial chocolate provider Schokinag in Germany and the land and building in United Kingdom.

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 Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) has hired banks to arrange a five-year US dollar denominated sukuk. It has mandated Goldman Sachs International, HSBC and Standard Chartered as the global coordinators. They will be joined by Bank ABC, Boubyan Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD Capital, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Gulf International Bank, Goldman Sachs International, HSBC, the ICD, KFH Capital, LBBW, Mizuho Securities, Samba Capital, SMBC Nikko, Standard Chartered Bank and Warba Bank as joint lead managers and joint bookrunners.

IdealRatings Inc. launched the FTSE IdealRatings Sukuk Index incorporating IdealRatings’ Sukuk Shariah compliance screening methodology into the existing FTSE Sukuk Index methodology. The FTSE IdealRatings Sukuk Index tracks the performance of US Dollar-denominated, investment-grade Sukuk that are issued in the global markets. The screening of Shariah compliance for global Sukuk is based on the authentic methodology developed by IdealRatings. The methodology incorporates more than 150 Shariah standards to assign a pass / fail score based on a pre-determined threshold, and Sukuk must pass any mandatory standards set by IdealRatings.

The government of Bangladesh is going to introduce Sukuk in the country, said Prof. Shibli Rubayat Ul Islalm, chairman of Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission. He believes that sukuk, once introduced, will widely contribute to various development-oriented activities of Bangladesh. Prof. Shibli made the remarks while speaking at the closing ceremony of a 'Workshop on Issuance and Management of Sukuk in Bangladesh'. The four-day workshop was jointly organised by the Central Shariah Board for Islamic Banks of Bangladesh (CSBIB) and the International Shariah Research Academy for Islamic Finance (ISRA), Malaysia.

The global sukuk market witnessed record issuances in 2019, recording $ 162 billion, an increase of 31% over 2018. Participants of the fourth session of the virtual webinar series of the World Islamic Economic Summit discussed the Global Islamic Economy Report for 2019/2020. According to the report, the assets of Islamic finance worldwide reached $ 2.5 trillion in 2018. Sukuk constituted 4% of these assets, and in the same year the UAE ranked fourth among the top 10 markets for Islamic finance assets in the world, with a value of $ 238 billion. The webinar session focused on discussing emerging trends in the sukuk market and future outlooks for the sector. The participants agreed that the sukuk market had performed well last year, and moderator Mohiuddin Kronfol indicated that the lack of updated data contributed to complicating the process of issuing sovereign and institutional sukuk.

The Islamic bond market has seen some improvement in recent months but its overall performance in 2020 will remain weaker than last year, pulled back by a lack of issuance from corporate borrowers and central banks. According to Mohamed Damak, global head of Islamic Finance at S&P Global Ratings, the sukuk market will be down compared to 2019. Although sovereigns, banks and multilateral lenders may issue more sukuk in foreign currencies, corporate borrowers have remained on the sidelines as they try to hold onto cash and reduce capital expenditure. Sukuk issuance volumes had fallen 27% on an annual basis in the first six months of this year. S&P expects overall issuance of Islamic bonds to reach around $100 billion (Dh367bn) for 2020, which will be about 40% lower than the $162bn recorded in 2019.

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.

Investor appetite for green sukuk is growing in the Arabian Gulf countries despite the lukewarm economic growth amidst the ongoing pandemic. Saudi Arabia’s electric transmission monopoly, Saudi Electricity Company (SEC), issued a multi-tranche $1.3 billion green sukuk and reported an order book of more $5.2 billion, indicating the immense appetite for sustainable Islamic bonds. The proceeds of SEC’s sukuk will be used to finance green projects relating to energy efficiency and renewable energy. Currently, Saudi Arabia is almost exclusively reliant on fossil fuels for power generation and has a high energy usage per capita because of its reliance on air conditioning and desalinated water. The green sukuk market is still in its infancy, with only a handful of issuances taking place.

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.

Oman's Ministry of Finance announced to launch of the third issue of sovereign sukuk denominated in Omani rials within the framework of the sovereign sukuk programme launched in 2019. The ministry has appointed Bank Muscat and its Islamic window (Meethaq) to manage the bond issuance and it can be subscribed through all licensed banks operating in the Sultanate. Oman is currently facing financial challenges as a result of the decline in oil prices and the consequences of COVID-19 pandemic, which have directly contributed to the sharp decline in global oil prices since the beginning of this year.

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.

Masraf Al Rayan has announced the issuance of $750mn Sukuk with a term of five years under the bank's existing $2bn sukuk programme. The issuance was 4.4 times oversubscribed to the tune of nearly $3.3bn. The overwhelming demand from investors has allowed the bank to increase the issue size from an initial $500mn to $750mn. The issuance was priced at a spread of 185 basis points over the five-year mid swap carrying a fixed profit rate of 2.21% per annum. Al Rayan Investment, Crédit Agricole CIB, HSBC, Mizuho, MUFG, QNB Capital, Société Générale and Standard Chartered Bank acted as joint lead managers and bookrunners on this transaction.

Indonesia's government launched retail sukuk SR013 to raise Rp 5 trillion (US$343 million) to fund the state budget in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The tradable debt papers, set to mature on Sept. 10, 2023, offer a fixed annual yield at 6.05%. Investors can buy the bonds for Rp 1 million to Rp 3 billion from Aug. 28 and Sept. 23 at 31 partnering distributors, which include conventional and sharia-compliant banks, as well as online investment platforms. As of Aug. 6, the government has issued Rp 236.82 trillion in domestic sukuk, which nearly topped last year’s issuance of Rp 258.28 trillion. The government raised in July Rp 18.33 trillion from government retail bond issuance ORI-017, the highest proceeds ever recorded in an online bond offering by the country.

The government of Pakistan is set to raise Rs150 billion with the reopening of its existing five-year Ijarah Sukuk issuance, maturing in July 2025. The steps of reopening of existing Sukuk is similar as that of issuance of a completely new Sukuk. The Sukuk was originally issued last month. Pre-auction target was set at Rs60 billion for fixed rental rate Sukuk for August-October. The target for the variable rental rate Sukuk has been fixed at Rs90 billion. For the subsequent period, the rental rate for the reopened Sukuk would be the same as that of the first issue. Similarly, the maturity of the reopened Sukuk would also be the same as the first issue.

The Malaysian government has launched the RM500 million Sukuk Prihatin which aims to raise funds from the public and corporates who wish to help contribute towards the Covid-19 Fund. Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the fund would be used to modernise telecommunications network in the rural area to help students get access to education through digital channels. It is also to provide further assistance to the micro, small and medium enterprises, as well as the healthcare sector's research on infectious diseases. The minimum subscription for the first investment is RM500 with an interest of 2% per annum for a tenure of two years. After the tenure ends, subscribers or investors can opt to fully donate the interest to Covid-19 Fund and will be given a tax relief depending on the size of the donation.