The global Islamic finance market will more than double in value during the next three years to more than US$2 trillion (Dh7.34tn), the ratings agency Standard & Poor’s says, as the Arabian Gulf embarks on a renewed deal-making boom.
The prediction came as banks reported unusually early demand in Oman from retail investors on the opening days of alizz islamic bank’s first public share sale. Islamic financial markets in the Gulf are experiencing “exuberant growth”, said Paul-Henri Pruvost, a financial analyst at S&P………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The GCC sukuk market has reached an “inflection point” in terms of new issuance, propelled by a fast growing appetite for infrastructure finance as the UAE emerged as the third global growth market for Islamic bonds, Standard & Poor’s said on Monday.
In the GCC, the UAE has become the second market for sukuk in the year to July with $5.3 billion. Saudi Arabia now leads the GCC ranks with $8.8 billion, replacing Qatar, which is currently in third with $4 billion. The kingdom is currently the second-largest global issuer behind Malaysia at $51.6 billion, after the government made moves to support Islamic finance………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Global Islamic bond sales are set for a record, helped by Turkey’s debut sovereign issue last week, as demand from Asia and the oil-rich Arabian Gulf pushes yields lower.
Sales jumped to $36bn this year, just shy of the full-year record of $36.7bn reached in 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Issues this year could “easily hit” $50bn as attractive pricing is prompting more issuers to tap the market, according to Commerzbank………………………………………..Full Article: Source

State utility Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) may issue an Islamic bond, or sukuk, in 2013, as part of its refinancing plans, the company’s chief executive said on Monday.
“We’re thinking about sukuk, not all of it but it will be a mix. There will be sukuk definitely but there will be other products also, for example we will have securitisation,” Saeed Mohammed al-Tayer told reporters when asked about issuance plans for 2013………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) announces that the monthly issue of the Sukuk Al-Salam Islamic securities for the BD18m issue, which carries a maturity of 91 days, has been oversubscribed by 248%.
The expected return on the issue, which begins on 26 September 2012 and matures on 26 December 2012, is 1.20%. (Press Release)

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, rated Ba2/BB, has hired Citigroup, HSBC and JP Morgan for a forthcoming dollar Eurobond issue, a source at the Finance Ministry said.
The sovereign is seeking to raise a minimum of USD1bn and the deal is likely to come to market at the end of October or beginning of November. The sovereign may also issue a sukuk next year, added the source. ……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Earnings sank by a fifth at Jebel Ali Free Zone Authority (Jafza) during the first half of the year as the higher cost of servicing its debts weighed on income after it was thrown a lifeline by banks this year.
The free-zone operator, a unit of Dubai World, dodged a showdown with creditors by successfully refinancing a Dh7.5 billion (US$2.04bn) sukuk due for repayment in November. But following the debt deal, net profits for the first half of the year fell to Dh212.2 million, a decline of 19.8 per cent compared with the same period a year earlier………………………………………..Full Article: Source

CBK Capital is believed to have $53.5 million in capital and manages a Kuwaiti stocks fund and an Islamic finance fund. Commercial Bank of Kuwait (CBK) said on Sunday it plans to liquidate its investment unit, according to a bourse filing.
The bank said in a statement the move to close CBK Capital, a fully-owned subsidiary which manages the bank’s proprietary investment portfolio, would not have a negative impact on the bank’s financial position but gave no details………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Barwa Bank, Qatar’s fastest growing Shari’ah compliant bank, has been appointed Co-Lead Manager for the Republic of Turkey’s debut Sukuk and, in the same week, has been ranked amongst the top ten for International, Global and MENA region Sukuk arrangers in the Bloomberg Islamic Finance league tables ‘2012 - ytd*’ Ranking as of 17 September 2012.
Barwa Bank has been chosen as a Co-Manager for Turkey’s first Sukuk transaction worth $1.5bn, following a succession of high profile arranger positions for the bank………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Rohit Walia, executive vice chairman & CEO at Bank Sarasin-Alpen Group, Middle East and India, says that the group will focus on tapping the Islamic finance industry in Saudi Arabia.
Dubai remains the central hub in MENA private banking, but this hasn’t stopped Bank Sarasin-Alpen expanding into Oman and plotting a major assault on Islamic finance in Saudi Arabia. The bank, which is one of various units in the region owned by Bank Sarasin based in Basel, started Gulf operations in 2005 with the launch of its Dubai office. It has since spread to Doha, Muscat, Manama and Abu Dhabi………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The Middle East contains an estimated $4.5 trillion of private wealth, according to the Boston Consulting Group. In recent years rapid growth has positioned it as a highly lucrative market that private banks are hoping can turn around their fortunes.
Amid a global squeeze on tax evasion and a spiralling Eurozone debt crisis, wealthy Middle Easterners have taken centre stage. The Gulf Business Private Banking Report looks at how wealth managers intend to tap this pool of money and what makes private clients tick. Others are using Dubai as a private banking launch pad to reach new GCC markets and branch out into Islamic finance………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Despite the policy by Bank of Ghana (BoG) not to license Islamic Banks to operate in the country, there are good reasons for the central bank to permit these no-interest-on-loans financial institutions, for which some players in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) sector and experts are urging BoG to rescind its decision.
Since the early 2000s, BoG has refused to give licences to Islamic Banks that approached it to do business in the country. Some attributed the central bank’s stance to persistent lobbying by the commercial banks which stand to lose when Islamic Banks operate in Ghana………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The emergence of Saudi mortgage law is expected to see a big improvement in the sukuk market because banks and deposits cannot finance the mortgage market, according to Hani O. Baothman, managing director and CEO of Sidra Capital.
“There has to be a sukuk market. I have never seen a mortgage market in the world that doesn’t operate with secondary bonds or sukuk market,” Baothman said. He said the current crisis in Europe is stopping Saudi investors from sending money to Europe, and Saudi Arabia is becoming one of their options for investing money inside the Kingdom………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Islamic loans are versatile. Some people think incorrectly that these Islamic mortgages don’t have some of the options their more traditional western counterparts do, but nothing could be further from the truth. Once you’ve been paying into one of these loans for a length of time, you will have built up a certain amount of equity that you can draw on for a variety of different projects.
One of the benefits to having equity is the possibility of a reverse mortgage. This is an option whereby the homeowner can take a portion of the money they’ve built up in their home and covert it into cash that usually doesn’t need to be repaid until the home is sold………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Malaysia’s claims to being in the forefront of the internationalization of Islamic finance have been further strengthened by the attention given to the Global International Financial Forum (GIFF) held in Kuala Lumpur last week.
The third such gathering organized by the Bank Negara, it attracted not merely practitioners, academics and Islamic scholars discussing often highly technical subjects but Ali Babacan, the deputy prime minister of Turkey and a man who played a crucial role in the revival and modernization of Turkey’s economy after its 2001 crisis………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Islamic finance sure has got the attention of the world, however it has not usurped conventional banking yet.
Getting Islamic finance to become the globally preferred financial model is a challenge and it will not happen overnight, said Dubai-based investment firm Fajr Capital CEO Iqbal Khan. “But the world’s economy is in dire need of a panacea, which is “a fundamental reform of financial architecture,” Iqbal said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

CIMB-Principal Asset Management Bhd (CIMB-Principal) signed a Letter of Arrangement and Operating Memorandum with RUSD Investment Bank Inc (RUSD) recently. Based in Labuan, RUSD will be creating two new funds, domiciled in Labuan, for distribution to their clients in the Middle East.
A breakthrough that has been in development for almost two years, the two newly set-up funds will feed into CIMB Islamic Asia Pacific Equity Fund and CIMB Islamic DALI Equity Growth Fund which are both Malaysian-based funds managed by CIMB-Principal………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Stock-market participants welcomed the Philippine Stock Exchange’s (PSE) efforts to establish a list of Shariah-compliant equities to tap Muslim investors in the country and abroad but execution challenges, like zeroing in on which firms to include, can remain a key consideration, they said.
Still, the plan is regarded with much optimism as this would provide additional breadth and depth to PSE, which remains one of the region’s smallest exchanges despite impressive gains so far this year. The Shariah-compliant list could be ready by the first half of 2013, Bloomberg News reported recently, citing Leo Quinitio, PSE head of capital-markets development division………………………………………..Full Article: Source