Arcapita Bank BSC, a manager of Islamic-compliant investments with $7 billion under management, filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. after failing to reach an agreement with creditors.
Arcapita, formerly known as First Islamic Investment Bank, and five affiliates sought Chapter 11 protection today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, listing assets of $3.06 billion and liabilities of $2.55 billion………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Sudan aims to raise $1 billion to $1.5 billion this year with Islamic “sukuk” bonds that offer stakes in an oil pipeline, a move the African country hopes will draw more Gulf Arab investment to its debt market, a senior official said on Monday.
Sudan Financial Services Co., which issues Islamic bonds on behalf of the government, wants to offer the dollar-denominated sukuk within two months, General Manager Azhari Eltayeb Elfaki told Reuters………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Indonesia’s finance ministry sold a record 13.6 trillion rupiah ($1.49 billion) in retail sukuk after receiving 19 trillion rupiah in demand, debt office chief Rahmat Waluyanto said on Monday.
The three-year retail sukuk has a coupon of 6.25 percent and can only be bought by individual investors who are Indonesian citizens. The ministry initially set an indicative target of 10 trillion rupiah………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Dubai Investments is negotiating with investors and financial institutions to fund a second phase of the Mussafah manufacturing unit of Emirates Float Glass which was officially inaugurated.
Khalid Bin Kalban, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Investments, said his company is also exploring a sukuk to fund the expansion………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Saudi Electricity Co can expect strong appetite for its debut foray into global debt markets, after the state-owned utility picked banks for roadshows ahead of a potential dollar-denominated Islamic bond.
SEC will hold investor meetings in Asia, the Middle East and Europe starting March 21 following which the company may issue a sukuk, subject to market conditions………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said that it assigned its ‘AA-’ long-term issue rating to the proposed U.S. dollar ijara trust certificates to be launched by Saudi Electricity Global SUKUK Co., a special purpose vehicle incorporated in the Cayman Islands.
The notes benefit from a purchase undertaking provided by Saudi Electric Co. (SEC; AA-/Stable/–) and are designed to cover any payment shortfall in a timely manner and to redeem the full value of the notes at maturity………………………………………..Full Article: Source

National Bank of Abu Dhabi PJSC, the United Arab Emirates’ second-biggest bank, will raise $750 million from a sale of dollar bonds, according to three people familiar with the plan.
Several Abu Dhabi-based banks have sold bonds over the past few months. First Gulf Bank PJSC (FGB), owned by Abu Dhabi’s ruling family, raised $500 million from the sale of five-year Islamic bonds in January. Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) PJSC, the emirate’s biggest Shariah-compliant lender, also sold $500 million of five-year sukuk in November, while Union National Bank PJSC raised $400 million from five-year bonds that month………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Dana Infra Nasional Bhd would be issuing bonds worth RM8bil in the second half of this year to finance the construction of the My Rapid Transit (MRT) project, less than the RM20bil to RM30bil initially expected, banking sources said.
There is also a likelihood that due to the delay in the bond issuance, the initial bridging loan of RM500mil from a consortium of banks to cover early building work would be raised to a “couple of billion ringgit” so that the MRT project would not suffer any delay, said the source……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Following Central Bank of Oman (CBO) approval, Bank Nizwa, Oman’s first Islamic bank, has announced the appointment of Dr Jamil el Jaroudi as chief executive officer.
Ahmed Saif al Rawahi, chairman of the Bank Nizwa Founding Committee, said, “Until we had formal approval from the CBO, we couldn’t go public with details of our chosen CEO. But now we can and it gives me great pleasure to announce the appointment of Dr Jamil el Jaroudi as Bank Nizwa’s first CEO………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Sheikh Muddassir Siddiqui, a prominent Islamic scholar and partner at international law firm SNR Denton’s Dubai office, has resigned from the firm to pursue a career in sharia advisory services.
Siddiqui told The Brief, a Gulf-based magazine on legal affairs published by Thomson Reuters, that he had stepped down as head of Islamic finance at SNR Denton because of the rapidly changing legislative environment in the Middle East and North Africa………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Islamic finance has existed in Europe for more than forty years, with the United Kingdom one of the world’s leading countries in the field, and others, such as Malta and Luxembourg, also at the forefront. In Italy, where the sector is more or less non-existent, results of the first experiments are now beginning to be seen.
In 2009, for instance, Deloitte set up a sector dedicated to Islamic finance. ”At the moment, we are developing products compatible with Italian regulations,” says Alberto Liotta, a director at the consultancy firm, a guest at a conference organised by Islamic Relief Italia………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The squeeze on public finances finds necessity as the mother of invention in trying to find new sources of funding. At the same time the ethics of the financial system are under continuing scrutiny, with Goldman Sachs last week accused by a departing executive of being “morally bankrupt”.
This month has already seen three events in Scotland which bear witness to the increasingly social and ethical dimension to searches for finance………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Friends Life PPL Ltd, a UK-based pension, life and investment firm will roll out a family takaful business in Malaysia with its local partner AMMB Holdings Bhd this year.
It is understood that the joint venture, AmFamily Takaful Bhd, will offer three major products lines, namely protection, investment-linked savings and pensions………………………………………..Full Article: Source