Albaraka Banking Group (BARKA) BSC’s units in Egypt and Turkey are planning to sell Islamic bonds and seek a Shariah-compliant syndicated loan, Chief Executive Officer Adnan Ahmed Yousif said.
Al Baraka Bank Egypt ESC, the group’s Cairo-based arm, expects to raise 1 billion Egyptian pounds ($168 million) from the sale of 10-year Islamic bonds this summer. In Istanbul, Albaraka Turk Katilim Bankasi AS (ALBRK) plans to raise $200 million with a murabaha Islamic syndicated loan, Yousif said………………………………………Full Article: Source

Issuance of Islamic bonds more than doubled in the first half of 2011 compared to the same period last year as Qatar found its way into the market while Malaysia sustained its dominance. The year is expected to be the best on record as geographical expansion continues.
As the first half of 2011 comes to a close, here is a recap of some of the developments that marked the sukuk landscape till June. In terms of geographical breakdown, Malaysia continued to dominate the market with over 62% of sukuk issued, followed by Qatar (20.6%). For the first time, Qatar beat the UAE as the main issuer of sukuk from the GCC……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Malaysia’s national power producer Tenaga Nasional will sell as much as 5 billion ringgit ($1.7 billion) in 20-year Islamic bonds, chief executive Che Khalib Mohamad Noh said.
The company will issue the sukuk in August or September with the proceeds used to finance a coal-fired power plant in Janamanjung in the northern state of Perak……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Malaysia’s insurers say they will buy 20-year Islamic bonds to be sold by Tenaga Nasional Bhd, the nation’s biggest power producer, amid a scarcity of securities maturing in more than 10 years.
Tenaga plans to raise as much as RM5 billion (US$1.7 billion) from the sale, likely in the third quarter, Chief Executive Officer Che Khalib Mohamad Noh said………………………………………Full Article: Source

Indonesia’s finance ministry aims to raise 1 trillion rupiah ($117 million) of sukuk on July 12, its first auction for Islamic bonds for nearly two months, the debt office said in a statement on Tuesday.………………………………………Full Article: Source

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commissiosn (ICRC) and the Debt Mangement Office (DMO) have started discussions on the best ways to explore an option of sukuk (Islamic) bonds for financing the infrastructure requirement in the country, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, CBN governor said.
The DMO had indicated interest in partnership with the CBN to develop and issue Islamic bonds for the Nigerian financial system……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Dubai National Bonds recorded a 29 per cent growth in sales and achieved its Dh1 billion sales mark early this year, highlighting the increased demand for savings witnessed amongst the UAE population.
The saving scheme also recorded a 3.2 per cent growth in its customer base, crossing 630,000 customers, with an almost equal growth in both female and male bondholders. Repeat purchases were also reported to have risen to 78 per cent highlighting the scheme’s increased customer loyalty……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Shares of Saudi International Petrochemical Co., known as Sipchem, closed flat at SR23.35 on Monday as the Saudi Tadawul lead index dipped 0.52% to 6,625.87 points. Earlier in the day, Sipchem announced the successful closing of its first publicly listed Sukuk on June 29, 2011 of SR1,800m ($480m) which was upsized from the initial base case of SR1,500m due to the strong demand shown by interested investors.
The Sukuk provides Sipchem an alternate source to funding its projects using a Shariah-compliant Mudaraba structure……………………………………….Full Article: Source

With the recovery of Islamic debt market and the continuous default rate of junk & small issuance sukuk, one should take notice to the growing niche market of restructuring debt in a sharia compliant manner. In this column, we provide a detailed insight to sukuk restructuring after defaults which many of the industry players are not aware of.
When I wrote an article almost a year ago on the confirmed default rate of sukuk (21 cases in the last 21 months), no one paid attention as these default events spurred from small firms facing difficulty in generating operating profits……………………………………….Full Article: Source

The adoption of halal logistics in Indonesia has the same characteristic with the adoption of Islamic banking. Around 18 years after the first Islamic banking was established, at the moment Indonesia is still in its infancy in Islamic banking with has only a 2% share of the banking sector in the country.
Islamic banking which was firstly known in 1992 along with the issuance of the Law No. 7 year 1992. This law enabled the bank to operate its business with the profit sharing system……………………………………….Full Article: Source

It is not often one meets a corporate banker who does not have a liquidity problem these days, but Meezan Bank’s Zubair Haider Sheikh happens to be in that lucky position.
While his competitors scramble to offer liquidity to their clients in the midst of heavy government borrowing, Meezan appears to be quite comfortably able to rely on its rapidly growing deposit base to serve its corporate clients……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Chief Minister of Kerala Oommen Chandy has announced support for interest-free Islamic banking concept in the state. He was inaugurating a national seminar on Interest-free Banking and Insurance system in Trivandrum.
The state government will try to get consent from the central government to implement such a banking system in the state, which will help utilize the money of NRIs for the development of the state, Mr. Chandy said……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Islamic Banking is the right platform to boost ‘green financing’ as it is based on the concept of promoting good practices and values, a leading Indian banker in Qatar has said.
R Seetharaman, the Chief Executive Officer of Doha Bank , said Islamic banking is not just a financial system, but is part of a total value-based social system that seeks to enhance the general welfare of society as a whole……………………………………….Full Article: Source

The Nigerian Central Bank (CBN) is hosting a two day conference to discuss the introduction of Islamic banking in the country. Under Sharia Islamic law, making money from money, such as charging interest, is usury and therefore not permitted.
The customer and the bank share the risk of any investment on agreed terms, and divide any profits between them……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Plans to introduce Islamic banking as one of the models of non-interest financial services has touched off intense controversy in religiously divided Nigeria.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) two weeks ago published a final set of regulations on non-interest banking, which includes Islamic banking, and cleared in principle two banks to offer the product……………………………………….Full Article: Source

BankDhofar’s recently held an ‘Islamic Banking for Executives’ program with the Bank’s top management team on Islamic Finance and the Sharia process. The 2 day program was in direct response to the recently announced Royal Decree which approves the establishment of Islamic Banking.
The key speaker at the event was Dr Salah Al majthoob, a leading Islamic Banking expert from Bahrain with a wealth of practical and theoretical experience in Islamic Finance; he is a certified Islamic finance trainer and member of the Accounting and Auditing Association Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI). (Press Release)

Durham University will build on its role as a leading UK centre for teaching Islamic finance and business with a new doctoral training centre. The Durham Centre for Islamic Economics and Finance is a collaboration between the University’s Durham Business School and the School of Government and International Affairs.
Durham has been a centre for research in Islamic finance for over 25 years, with a significant history of PhD study which will enter a new era with the launch of the centre in the autumn……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Thomson Reuters has partnered with IdealRatings to provide a new Sharia-compliant index for Islamic financial investment. Thomson Reuters IdealRatings Islamic Indices will be available on Thomson Reuters Eikon and some of the company’s other services.
The joint venture will cover over 60 countries and global equity markets in nine regions, as well as individual sectors. The index will be reviewed on a quarterly basis to ensure Sharia-compliant standards, which will be assessed using proprietary algorithmic searches run by a team of dedicated researchers……………………………………….Full Article: Source