IslamicFinance.de

Australia's wealth of natural resources and financial landscape provide a natural platform for Islamic finance, with potential to attract a new type of global investors. Trailing Muslim neighbours such as Malaysia and Indonesia, Australia is looking at developing Islamic finance to attract wealth and create jobs.

The Australian and Malaysian governments held talks this week to cooperate in Islamic finance. The Australian government has expressed interest in Islamic finance but so far it is limited to small entities such as the Muslim Community Cooperative (Australia) Ltd and Iskan Finance which offer home loans. One of the biggest obstacles to the development of Australia's Islamic finance market is tax law.

Saudi Arabia said it launches its new market for Islamic bonds, or sukuk, and bonds.Tadawul currently trades Islamic bond issues by only two listed firms - Saudi Basic Industries Corp and Saudi Electricity, which will launch sukuk on Saturday worth 5 billion saudi riyals. The government is a major shareholder in both firms.

Qatari bank lending fell 7 % in the first two months of 2009 as credit to the public sector dropped 36 %, central bank data showed, the latest signal Gulf banks are more cautious on new loans.

Dubai Islamic Bank's shareholders agreed Monday to increase its capital by 3 billion dirhams (USD 816 mn) over five years. The bank said in an emailed statement that shareholders at a general assembly also agreed to convert an 3.75 billion-dirham deposit from the Ministry of Finance into Tier 2 capital.

International Investment Bank (IIB), Bahrain announces a Net Income of USD 13.5 mn and the approval of a cash dividend payment of 7% for the year ended 31 December 2008.

At USD 13.5 mn, the 2008 Net Income represents a 12.3% return on Paid up Capital (ROC). The Capital Adequacy ratio at 31 December 2008 of 86% is over 7 times of 12% required by the Central Bank of Bahrain.

Mr. Aabed Al Zeera is the Chief Executive Officer and Board member.

For full details on IIB’s financial results, please see the ‘Financial Section’ on IIB’s website at source.

Emirates NBD has launched a fund to take advantage of the high yields currently available in Sukuk following the steep price declines in Q4 2008 caused by the wider turmoil in global financial markets. The Shari’a-compliant Fund targets annualized returns of c.12% over the next four years.

Jamal Bin Ghalaita, General Manager of Consumer Banking and Wealth Management at Emirates NBD, sees Sukuk as undervalued after panic selling last year.

Minimum investment of USD 25,000 for individual investors and USD 1,000,000 for institutional investors. The secondary sukuk market is difficult to access but, by investing through the Fund, investors benefit from scale, diversification, and the skills of expert fund managers. Should the Fund meet certain return targets, the Fund will be called and gains will be locked in for investors.