The government is considering up sizing the issuance of the nation’s fourth ever retail Islamic debt papers (sukuk) after seeing strong demand from local individual investors.
“There may be an up-size,” Rahmat Waluyanto, director general of the Finance Ministry’s debt management office, told The Jakarta Post on Monday without disclosing details………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority will start a pilot platform with Bank Negara Malaysia and Euroclear Bank SA to spur trading of sukuk and Dim Sum bonds as the city aims to become China’s hub for Islamic finance and offshore yuan transactions.
The platform, which will start on March 30, will allow investors in Malaysia to buy yuan-denominated bonds in Hong Kong, Esmond Lee, executive director for financial infrastructure of the city’s de-facto central bank said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) plans to increase holdings of global Islamic bonds to US$3bil by 2013 from US$1.7bil, chief executive officer Azlan Zainol said.
Syariah-compliant notes accounted for 1.5% of EPF’s total bond allocation and the plan was to increase it to 2.5% by 2013, Azlan said in an interview. The company started a programme to buy sukuk in October 2010………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Middle East bond sales are off to a record start this year after political unrest that swept through some nations in 2011 subsided and as concern waned that Europe’s debt crisis would impinge on demand for regional debt.
Regional governments and companies raised $10.1bn in bonds in so far in 2012, the most for the same period since Bloomberg began tracking the data in 1999. A $4bn Islamic bond sale in Saudi Arabia, the biggest Arab economy, steered a 55% rise in sales from the year-ago period………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The UAE is not planning to issue a sovereign bond over the next two years, Finance Minister Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid al-Maktoum said on Tuesday.
Other senior finance ministry officials had previously been quoted as saying the UAE’s debut sovereign bond could come at the end of 2012 and be about US$1bn………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Iran will issue five trillion rials (some $407 million) in bonds by the end of this Iranian calendar year (March 19) to finance South Pars gas field projects, said the financial director of Pars Oil and Gas Company.
Touraj Jahanara told Shana news agency that the current year’s budget allows the oil ministry to issue 100 trillion rials (some $8.2 billion) in bonds to finance the oil and gas projects………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Asian Islamic lenders are widening their focus from households to banking for companies, a market HSBC Amanah predicts will grow 20 percent this year.
While the volume of Shariah-compliant debt has increased fivefold since 2006, corporate banking services involving shipping products or capital investment have been relatively untapped, said Herwin Bustaman, HSBC Amanah’s Indonesia head………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Textile manufacturer Sri Rejeki Isman has taken out a $400 million loan, tapping into $3.3 billion in funds that the Islamic Development Bank is making available to Indonesian companies.
Last May, the Saudi Arabia-based IDB announced that it would make the loans available to companies in Indonesia, both private and public………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Sharjah Islamic Bank (SIB) announced that its general assembly has approved the Board of Directors’ proposal to distribute a cash dividend of 6 per cent of capital, amounting to Dh145.5 million.
The announcement was made following the SIB General Assembly Meeting, which was held at the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry yesterday, March 12, 2012. The General Assembly also approved the financial results for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2011………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Maybank Islamic Bhd (MIB), already the region’s largest Islamic bank by asset size, is pursuing an aggressive stance to further strengthen its pres-ence in Indonesia and Singapore. Chief executive officer Muzaffar Hisham said after giving priority to its domestic operations in the last few years, MIB will be focusing more on growing its regional business this year.
“We want to deep-dive into key markets especially Indonesia and Singapore,” he said in an interview with Business Times, adding that Maybank group’s acquisition of Singapore’s bro-kerage firm Kim Eng has opened opportunities for MIB too………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Extraordinary efforts are underway in the Gulf region focusing on the financial and banking sectors to resolve the crisis of financing small and medium-sized projects, which has almost stopped as a result of the global credit problems that started in mid-2008.
The credit crisis has led to a drastic decline in the volume of cash inflows to projects — also the emergence of strict banking conditions have paralyzed many projects. The crisis has also resulted in reducing growth rates, highlighting a serious decline in the levels of the GDP………………………………………..Full Article: Source

NCB Capital expects that loan growth for Saudi banks to continue strong in 2012 as they focus on retail lending. In its new report issued today, NCB Capital believes that government spending and bonus salaries in 2011 will have a “recurring effect” on banks’ balance sheet growth in 2012.
NCB Capital expects the bottom line this year to be driven by volume growth and non-interest income………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Barwa Bank, Qatar’s fastest growing Shari’ah compliant banking service provider, is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Hussain Al Abdullah as Head of Retail Banking.
With more than 12 years of experience in the local banking and finance sector, Mr Al Abdullah, as Head of Retail Banking, is responsible for leading and managing Barwa Bank’s Retail Banking division, covering a full spectrum of products and services across the different retail customer segments, and brings a deep understanding and insight to implementation of Barwa Bank’s Retail Banking strategy. (Press Release)

Islamic banking may play a vital role in Asean trading, especially for the Philippines, which has good business relationship with Indonesia and Malaysia. Islamic banking is a system that is based on the principles of Islamic law, also known as Shariah, and guided by Islamic economics.
Two basic principles behind Islamic banking are the sharing of profit and loss and, significantly, the prohibition of the collection and payment of interest………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Bahrain-based Capinnova, the Shariah-compliant investment banking arm of BBK, has acquired a strategic stake in SMMP, a leading Saudi-based manufacturer of medical disposable products, for $22 million.
The company, Saudi Mais Company For Medical Products is one of the leading manufacturers of medical disposables in the Kingdom having obtained the ISO 9001, the GMP, and the CE Mark certificates………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Qatari businessman, Abdulaziz Al Dolaimi said his group is interested in post-Revolution Tunisia and mulls investing in areas of activities of the group, including Islamic banking and petrochemical energy.
“Tunisia has several assets that encourage investment, including basic infrastructure and adequate human resources with a high level of education,” he said, as he met, Monday, Interim President Moncef Marzouki………………………………………..Full Article: Source

In a public letter to the stock exchanges on which Gulf Finance House’s shares are listed, the Islamic investment bank has responded to what it describes as ‘the misleading and misunderstood statement made by Kuwait Stock Exchange on their website yesterday which caused quiet a stir’.
The letter from Gulf Finance House (GFH), under the signature of Dr. Haider Majali, Chief Strategy Officer and Corporate Secretary says: “With reference to the misunderstanding of the financial statements of GFH for the financial year ended 31 December 2011 by Kuwait Stock Exchange yesterday, please be informed that:……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Shariah investment event to address the way forward for Egypt, and the crucial role of the Islamic Funds and Sukuk industry in the country’s recovery. The industry needs to set the right strategy to maximize mutual benefits of different players, while boosting the economy.
he importance of increasing cross-border investment is just one of the topics to be covered at the two-day ISICII event in Egypt; a country in transition and rich in opportunity. The Islamic finance industry is currently gaining ever more attention as recent turmoil in North Africa has led to a shift in governing bodies and authorities, and a search for alternative structures for the economy. This ISIC aims to provide a forum to discuss issues and opportunities in Egypt and the wider region. (Press Release)

The insurance market in Saudi Arabia has changed dramatically in the past decade, with further development anticipated, according to a recently released A.M. Best Co. report.
“Since the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) began regulating the sector in 2003, there have been significant advancements to the regulatory environment, in particular structural changes to insurers. Companies were required to become majority Saudi-owned and have needed to move onshore to the Kingdom,” said Dean Portelli, senior financial analyst………………………………………..Full Article: Source