IslamicFinance.de

The 2nd Quarter 2011 issue of the Malaysian ICM quarterly bulletin published by the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) is now available online at:
http://www.sc.com.my/eng/html/icm/11_2Q_msianicm.pdf

Stocks in Ajman Bank fell 1.19 per cent to 83 fils a share. The bank's stocks have, however, gone up 4.2 per cent since the start of the year.
The bank's profits are also revealing the first solid growth for some time.
The bank has also showed a desire to concentrate on women's banking and spread out its network with up to four new branches.

The Thai laws were discussed by Siripen Kaodara and Stephen Jaggs.
Although Thailand had a Muslim population of approximately nine million and an Islamic banking system which dates back to 1998, it previously lacked the necessary legal infrastructure for high profile Islamic products such as sukuk.
Three years ago, Thailand passed the Act on Trusts for Capital Market Transactions (Trust Act) which introduced the concept of ‘trust’ into the Thai civil law system. The main regulation, which sets out the approval and filing requirements for sukuk, took effect on the 16th January 2011 (Sukuk Regulation).

A report recently published by Frost & Sullivan showes that Islamic asset management is gaining interest among investors as an avenue for alternative investment. They claim that the center is beginning to be new categories of Islamic products like hedge funds, fund of funds, index funds and exchange traded funds.
However, the report also states that the Islamic asset management industry is provoked by a lack of depth in the GCC capital market, causing inefficiencies in portfolio management.

In order to reduce risks of financial transactions, member countries of the International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM) may soon enjoy a hedging facility.
IIFM member countries would sign a master agreement, called a tahawwut agreement, to accommodate the hedging facility.
The agreement, according to Mulya Siregar, Bank Indonesia’s director for sharia banking, was needed to ease the risks of currency-related transactions amid currency concerns affecting both developed and emerging economies.

Steuerliche Würdigung im nationalen und internationalen Kontext

Der Markt Islamic Finance wächst rasant und umfasst bereits heute ein erhebliches Anlagevolumen. Demgegenüber besteht ein großer Kapitalbedarf in der europäischen, speziell auch in der deutschen Realwirtschaft ebenso wie ein Bedarf an Investoren.

Bei der Umsetzung von Islamic-Finance-Vertragsmodellen kann die Besteuerung im Einzelfall eine ausschlaggebende Rolle spielen. Daher erläutert die Autorin in diesem Buch für ausgewählte schariakonforme Finanzierungs- und Anlageformen zunächst die Scharia-Rahmenbedingungen der jeweiligen Vertragsmodelle aus deutscher rechtlicher, ertragsteuerlicher und verkehrsteuerlicher Sicht. Die steuerlichen Fragestellungen werden anhand von Beispielen im grenzüberschreitenden Corporate Bereich im Schnittpunkt von deutschem internationalem Steuerrecht und ausländischem Steuerrecht der weiteren beteiligen Staaten verdeutlicht.

Inhalt

* Einleitung
* Grundzüge von Islamic-Finance-Vertragsmodellen
- eigenkapitalbasierte („Musharaka“ und „Mudaraba“),
- fremdkapitalbasierte („Murabaha“ und „Tawarruq“) sowie

ResearchGATE is the largest social network for academic research globally. Dedicated social profiles of researchers allow to enter academic careers, published articles in journals and books, announce fields of research for international exchange just to name a few of the features.

IslamicFinance.de took another effort to create a dedicated group and invite researchers globally to use this platform and foster research in Islamic finance. The last academic initiative taken was to sponsor and start a full fledged platform for the Islamic Finance WIKI, the online encyclopedia.

Researchers are invited to participate in these initiatives.

Please visit:
http://www.researchgate.net/group/Islamic_Finance/

Standard Chartered Bank sees opportunities in Islamic derivative products but is steering clear of hedge funds, another grey area of Shariah-compliant finance, the head of its Saadiq unit said.

Standard Chartered Bank sees opportunities in Islamic derivatives products but is steering clear of hedge funds, another grey area of sharia-compliant finance, the head of its Saadiq unit said.

Dubai is opening up its inaugural hedge fund to investors after an index-beating debut. The Middle East emirate's first fund of funds, which was launched at the beginning of 2009, beat comparable indexes by posting a 41% return last year. The fund, up slightly more than 1% through March 28, is still outperforming benchmarks this year.

Press Release

The report provides investors with an in-depth overview of the various asset classes in Islamic wealth management along with a synopsis of the market scenario during the past 18 months. The report also explores the concept of estate and succession planning, which Sarasin believes is insufficiently addressed in the Islamic finance industry and is a key element of Sarasin’s Islamic wealth management offering. Finally, the report provides an insight into the bank’s economic outlook for 2010.

The key issues and challenges addressed in the report are:

• how Sharia screening reduced the downside in volatile markets and how it affects the finance industry and investors,
• the behaviour of direct real estate investments in comparison with real estate funds and Sharia-compliant real estate investment trusts,
• the income-related role of Sukuk within Islamic balanced portfolios and the probability of defaults,
• a comparison between various Islamic investment funds ranging from income-oriented to commodity, real estate and equity funds,
• the size and future of the Islamic private equity and venture capital industry,
  

Press Release

Today sees the launch of a new Journal on Islamic finance from dedicated Islamic finance media entity Yasaar Media.

The Journal, called So Far – the Journal of Strategic Thinking in Islamic Finance, is written and edited by members of an Islamic finance Think Tank and is modelled on traditional academic journals. The difference with So Far is that the members of the Think Tank are predominantly practitioners rather than academics.
Member of the Think Tank are drawn from the ranks of committed Islamic finance professionals around the world and range from the Gulf and the Far East to the USA and Europe.

Each issue of So Far is dedicated to a single topic of core importance to the Islamic finance industry – and the launch issue looks at the thorny issue of the problems facing the Sukuk market. Unlike many other journals So Far is distributed free in PDF format and is available from a variety of sources including Yasaar Media thus guaranteeing maximum readership and exposure.

IslamicFinance.de has created a fanpage on Facebook - for all the users wishing to follow the news abstracts on the Facebook platform. Please join and enjoy!

Palisades Park Capital started a multi-strategy hedge fund in November. Justin Doff and Omar Haroon manage the fund. The fund is a computer-based long-short equity strategy.

Update 12.2.2010: Palisades Park Capital informed IslamicFinance.de that the vehicle has been closed and new subscriptions can no longer be done.

IslamicFinance.de is calling Islamic financial institutions to become member of the UNEP Finance Inititiave to learn and contribute to international best practice in ethical and faith based finance:

"UNEP FI is a global partnership between UNEP and the financial sector. Over 180 institutions, including banks, insurers and fund managers, work with UNEP to understand the impacts of environmental and social considerations on financial performance."

membership information package:
http://www.unepfi.org/fileadmin/forms/MembershipInformationPack.pdf

The Financial Times produced a special looking into the Future of Islamic Finance.

The download is free of charge.

Yasaar media published a new report called Islamic Finance in North America 2009 for free download, which is co-published by Codexa Capital, UM Financial Group, King & Spalding, and Doha Islamic.

According to the report Islamic finance in North America has developed along two quite separate paths:

• The first path focuses on retail Islamic finance and centres mostly on home financing products and credit cards.

• The second path involves a number of high profile GCC-based Islamic investment banks and their deployment of hundreds of millions of dollars in private equity and real estate developments in North America.

Read the full report for free at the link below.

Yasaar Media published a report about Islamic Investment Banking for free download, with the co-publishers Unicorn Investment Bank, Doha Islamic covering data and principles regarding Private Equity, Venture Capital, syndicated lending, real estate, asset management, fund manageement, liquidity management, treasury, trade finance and capital markets in an Islamic context.

A new McKinsey Report is released reviewing the performance of the so-called "new power brokers" being sovereign wealth funds, private equity and hedge funds during the financial crisis.

The power brokers' collective performance in the financial crisis, though better than the sharp declines in wealth of most institutional investors, masks an important shift: Asian sovereign and petrodollar investors emerged as more influential than ever, while hedge funds and private equity saw their previously rapid growth interrupted.

In a 2007 report, MGI labeled these four groups of investors the “new power brokers” because they had gained enough wealth and clout to influence global financial markets. MGI revisited the power brokers to examine how their fortunes diverged over the during the financial crisis that unfolded in 2008 and projects where they may go from here, using a scenario approach.

The full report can be downloaded for free after registration:

Olivant Investments has written down the entire value of its 30 % stake in Amiri Capital, a company offering a Sharia compliant Hedge fund platform.