Another sign of how the dynamics of the global financial crisis, especially the on-going euro zone debt crisis and the credit crunch, are affecting more stable economies in the emerging countries and where relevant including their Islamic finance and especially sukuk market, is the postponement of the proposed sukuk offerings of two of Turkey’s participation banks, Al Baraka Turk Katilim Bankasi (Albaraka Turk Participation Bank (ATPB) and Bank Asya.

Both were supposed to close their sukuk offerings by the end of 2012. The general reason for the postponement was adverse market conditions, but in reality they differed for each institution………………………………………Full Article: Source

Projek Lebuhraya Usahasama Bhd (PLUS Bhd) is set to issue RM30.60 billion Sukuk to part finance the purchase of assets, liabilities, businesses, undertakings and rights of five toll concessions.

PLUS said on Sunday the sukuk issuance scheduled for Jan 12 would be the the largest global Sukuk and Malaysia’s single largest bond issuance to-date. The Sukuk issuance follows the privatisation of PLUS Expressways Bhd (PEB) – one of Malaysia’s largest privatisation exercises – and the restructuring of the toll concessions under PEB and Penang Bridge Sdn Bhd (PBSB),” it said………………………………………Full Article: Source

Majid Al Futtaim Holding LLC, the operator of Carrefour SA stores in the Middle East, set up a $1 billion Islamic bond program to boost cash reserves. Majid Al Futtaim hired HSBC Holdings Plc, Standard Chartered Plc, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank PJSC and Dubai Islamic Bank PJSC as arrangers of the program, according its bond prospectus released via the Regulatory News Service.

The Dubai-based company will seek to raise about $500 million from the sale of five-year Islamic bonds, its treasury manager Daniele Vecchi said in November. Majid Al Futtaim raised $1 billion from a group of banks in July to refinance debt and to increase liquidity………………………………………Full Article: Source

Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) Holding, the retail conglomerate behind Carrefour in the Middle East, has appointed four banks to manage its first Islamic bond issuance programme, worth $1 billion (Dh3.67bn).
The privately-held company, which also owns and runs huge malls such as Mall of the Emirates, has chosen Dubai Islamic Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, HSBC and Standard Chartered to set up its first programme………………………………………Full Article: Source

Qatar’s Barwa Bank, a unit of Barwa Real Estate, has completed a 1.7 billion riyals ($466.8 million) rights issue aimed at funding the bank’s expansion, it said in a statement on Sunday. The Islamic bank said the offering, which opened on December 6 and saw 109.1 million new shares offered to existing shareholders, attracted bids of 1.9 billion riyals.

Barwa Bank’s issued capital will increase to 3 billion riyals from 1.9 billion riyals following the rights issue, with authorised capital upped to 6 billion riyals from 2.5 billion riyals, it added………………………………………Full Article: Source

Dubai Islamic Bank’s Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Al Hamli has resigned from the board of Gulf Finance House, the Bahraini investment bank said.
Al Hamli, who held the position of a board member at GFH, has decided to focus on his duties at Dubai Islamic, according to a statement on the Dubai bourse website. GFH has been hard hit by the Gulf’s economic crisis and struggled throughout 2010 to pay back the debt it took on during the Gulf property boom that ended in 2008………………………………………Full Article: Source

European Islamic Investment Bank is to invest $16 million over 12 months in Rasmala Holdings Ltd via a financing facility convertible into shares representing about 35 percent of the group’s enlarged capital. Rasmala chairman Ali Shihabi said that Rasmala chief executive Anwar Abu Sbaitan would continue in that role. Shihabi will be chairman of Rasmala’s supervisory board.

Rasmala, which has around $900 million in assets, has offices in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Egypt and operates in asset management, corporate finance and institutional brokerage………………………………………Full Article: Source

The Saudi unit of Kuwait Finance House, the Gulf state’s largest Islamic bank, made a SR360m ($96m) profit from the sale of a real estate project in the kingdom, the bank said in a regulatory filing on Sunday.

KFH sold the project for SR1.5bn and that the profit will be reflected in the bank’s first quarter financial results, the statement added. The buyer of the project was not disclosed………………………………………Full Article: Source

The Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) has announced a project financing agreement with Al Million Services Trading and Contracting Company to fund its purchase and operation of 500 new taxis.

The financing will be implemented according to the Islamic finance methods of Murabaha, Wikala, and Istisnaa. QIB is the largest Islamic bank in Qatar and one of the top-five Shariah-compliant banks in the world………………………………………Full Article: Source

Saudi Arabia’s financial regulator has approved a 33 percent capital increase for Saudi British Bank (SABB) and a 20 percent hike for Saudi Hollandi Bank, it said in separate filings on Sunday.

SABB, an affiliate of HSBC, will raise its capital to 10 billion riyals ($2.67 billion) from 7.5 billion riyals by transferring 2.5 billion riyals from its retained earnings. It will issue a bonus share for every three existing shares owned by registered shareholders, bringing its total number of shares to 1 billion………………………………………Full Article: Source

While uncertainty continues to roil global markets, driving many investors into full retreat, one part of the financial sector is expanding exponentially: Islamic-law-compliant financial assets have grown from about $5 billion in the late 1980’s to roughly $1.2 trillion in 2011.

This asset class, which is characterized by shared risk between institutions and clients, avoided many of the most severe consequences of the global financial crisis that began in 2008. This resilience, along with several other key features, underpins the high performance and growing popularity of Islamic finance………………………………………Full Article: Source

For Canada’s 1.3 million Muslims, UM Financial arrived on the financial scene with a valuable service: mortgages that, in compliance with sharia principles, don’t charge interest. But its failure last year has sparked a fierce debate about whether Islamic banking should be banned, or whether it’s still a potentially lucrative industry in need of better regulation.

Mortgages with UM Financial were set up so that lender and borrower purchased the house together. The homebuyer pays rent to the mortgage issuer (rather than interest), while gradually buying off the outstanding share of the property………………………………………Full Article: Source

The Islamic value system in economic life is a moral code for economic and social progress. For instance, when a “Muslim” applies Islam’s rules in work, science, justice, investment, construction and diligence etc, and when a “Muslim” rejects what Islam prohibits, such as fraud, injustice, ribba (profit without labour), ignorance, overspending, manipulation, monopoly etc. Sharia rulings make it essential to answer this key question:
Is every “bank interest” considered forbidden ribba, in light of the evolution of the Western economic view of banking interest, on the one hand, and disagreement among Islamic scholars about bank interest, on the other?……………………………………..Full Article: Source

Contrary to popular misconception, Saudi Arabia is the largest beneficiary of the services of the Jeddah-based Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Export Credits and Investment (ICIEC), the standalone export credit agency (ECA) of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group.

The World Bank’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) in its 2011 World Investment and Political Risk report which was published in December in London, indeed confirmed that………………………………………Full Article: Source