Sadara Chemical Company, a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Dow Chemical , said it launched a local currency Islamic bond to help fund the construction of a $20 billion petrochemical complex in the east of the kingdom.
The facility, located at Jubail Industrial City in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, will be the world’s largest chemical complex ever built in a single phase. Size and pricing of the sukuk, which is only available to Saudi investors, will be determined once roadshows have taken place. The sukuk has a 16-year lifespan, the statement said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

National Shipping Co of Saudi Arabia (Bahri) is considering a debut Islamic bond issue to help refinance debt taken on for its $1.3bn acquisition of Saudi Aramco’s marine unit last year, three sources said on Sunday.
The purchase of Vela’s fleet, which cost 4.88 billion riyals ($1.3 billion), made Bahri the world’s fourth-largest owner of very large crude carriers, or VLCCs, with part of the agreement making Bahri the sole provider of VLCC crude oil shipping services to Aramco………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Strong investor demand supported by improving liquidity is expected to boost both issuance and performance of sukuk this year, according to rating agency Standard & Poor’s. “Global issuance expanded for the fourth year in a row in 2012, growing 64 per cent to about $138 billion, and we expect another strong few years,” said Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Paul-Henri Pruvost.
While sukuk is still considered an alternative investment, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services believes it has the potential to grow and join the mainstream fixed income universe………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Saudi Electricity Co. (SEC), the Gulf’s largest utility, has picked two banks to arrange meetings with fixed income investors in Europe and the United States ahead of a possible debt issue, a statement from the lead managers said.
State-owned SEC has chosen Deutsche Bank and HSBC Holdings to arrange the roadshows, which begin on March 19 in Los Angeles and conclude in London on March 25. A dollar-denominated bond issue may follow, subject to market conditions, the statement added………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Malaysia has done well in developing its Islamic capital market and will seek to bolster the sector further. In its annual report 2012, the Securities Commission (SC) said efforts to further innovate and broaden the sukuk market will continue via the introduction of a frame-work for the issuance of AgroSukuk for companies in the agriculture sector.
To improve the availability of fund-raising avenues for agriculture activities and agro-based in-dustries, the government has also proposed in the 2013 Budget that expenses for the issuance of AgroSukuk will be entitled to a double deduction for a period of three years, effective from assessment year 2013 to 2015………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The government mulls floating of special bonds in the fiscal year (FY) 2012-13 to help the state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) pay off its overdue bank loans, a top official said.
“We intend to settle the BPC’s subsidy-related loans with the state-owned commercial banks (SoBs) by issuing the special bonds in the FY ‘13,” the Ministry of Finance (MoF) stated in its memorandum of economic and financial policies submitted to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently………………………………………..Full Article: Source

KFH-Research issued a report that stated that Iran’s Islamic banking assets contributed 42.7% of the total global Islamic banking assets in 2012, followed by PGCC (34.1%) and Malaysia (10.0%).
KFH Research Ltd is the world’s first Islamic investment research arm to be established by an Islamic Bank. A direct subsidiary of Kuwait Finance House, KFH Research was established in 2007, comprising of industry professionals and star research analysts with broad experience in Islamic finance & global markets. The report stated that total assets of Islamic banking in the PGCC region is 34% of assets of Islamic banks worldwide………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The assets of Islamic banks in Qatar were QR195bn at the end of 2012 compared to QR8.8bn 10 years ago, Governor of the Qatar Central Bank (QCB) Sheikh Abdullah bin Soud Al Thani said.
The governor of QCB said the assets of Islamic banking represent 23.8 percent of the assets of the entire banking sector, up from 14 percent back in 2002. Deposits in Islamic banks represent 26.6 percent of the deposits in the banking sector. Islamic banks have a total of QR121.6bn in deposits. Profits of Islamic banks jumped to QR3.8bn during the same period………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Morocco’s central bank has started talks with a body of Islamic scholars on establishing a central Sharia board to oversee the country’s fledgling Islamic finance industry, a central bank official said.
The board, composed of scholars and financial experts, would rule on whether instruments and activities complied with Sharia principles. Its creation would be a step towards establishing full-fledged Islamic banks in Morocco. The government plans to submit to parliament a bill regulating Islamic banks, which will be called participative banks under the legislation. Parliament’s vote is expected by the last week of April, sources said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Central Bank of Oman (CBO) does not plan to allow foreign Islamic banks to set up operations in the sultanate for the time being as it assess the market size and demand for the next two to three years.
H E Hamood Sangour al Zadjali, executive president of CBO, said, “Foreign banks have shown some interest in setting up Islamic banking operations in the sultanate, but we will first give opportunity to local banks and see how the market develops. Accordingly, we will decide whether we need to expand the number of Islamic banking units or not.”……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Khaleeji Commercial Bank (KHCB), one of Bahrain’s fast growing Islamic retail banks has announced the launch of their Personal Finance campaign for 2013. The campaign comes as part of KHCB’s strategy to continuously enhance its products and services to offer customers the easiest financial solutions. A fully Shari’ah compliant financing scheme, KHCB’s Personal Financing solutions enable customers to avail finance up to BD200,000 at a most competitive profit rate and approval within 24 hours of application submission and they can also enjoy a grace period of 90 days.
Commenting on the launch of their Personal Finance campaign, Mr. Fuad Taqi, Deputy General Manager - Commercial Banking of KHCB said, “We at Khaleeji Commercial Bank aim to offer our customers the utmost in value and benefit through our consumer finance products. Our Personal Financing solutions have been designed to provide our customers with fast, fair and affordable financing for all their needs.” (Press Release)

Bank Nizwa, the Sultanate’s first Islamic bank, has got a sizable relaxation in deploying funds in overseas markets for the initial one year. The banking regulator Central Bank of Oman (CBO) has allowed Bank Nizwa to invest up to 75 per cent of the bank’s net worth in foreign currency-denominated assets in the first six months, up to 50 per cent in the subsequent six months, which is against the normal 40 per cent ceiling for banks in Oman, Hamoud bin Sangour Al Zadjali, Executive President of the CBO, said.
“Thereafter, the bank has to bring down the maximum ceiling to 40 per cent. At the moment, it is available to only Bank Nizwa and not (extended to) other banks, which have window operations,” added the CBO chief………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Whether the Qur’an bans all forms of interest, or specifically its exploitative forms, was a matter of controversy in the early decades of Islam. It still remains in doubt. What is crystal clear is that what passes as Islamic finance is anything but interest-free.
Almost all of the Islamic banks in existence, including those in Egypt, charge their borrowers what any economist would call interest; they also pay their depositors interest as a matter of course. This is not surprising, for interest continues to provide tangible benefits to both lenders and depositors………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Conventional finance may need to make room for the Islamic variety, at least in Russia. In 2009 and 2010, one survey found that 97 percent of people who were mainly Muslim or from an Islamic background were interested in using an Islamic bank. Of that 97 percent, 40 reside in Moscow. How far has Islamic finance come in a country that’s one of the most influential game-players in the financial world?
The Voice of Russia invited two experts in the field, Farmida Bi, lawyer and partner at Norton Rose LLP and Adnan Halawi, Head of Islamic Finance at Zawya, to share their views on the market’s current trends and future potential………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Is Dubai’s ambition to be a hub for sharia-compliant finance realistic? Orlando Crowcroft finds some optimism, though there is a need for trained financial advisers.
The announcement at the start of the year from Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, that he wants to turn the emirate into a world capital for Islamic finance may have raised eyebrows in the global business community. Talk is cheap, after all, and new initiatives ten-a-penny since the global recession took an axe to the United Arab Emirate’s breakneck economic growth………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The UK’s Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) said that its Islamic Finance Qualification (IFQ) will be offered in Spain, via a long-term training agreement signed between the UK-based accredited training provider, Simply Sharia Human Capital (SSHC), and the prestigious Spanish business school, Escuela de Finanzas (EdF).
SSHC will offer the IFQ, a globally-recognised foundation course, as part of the business school’s CISI Masters programme in wealth management and Islamic finance; a five-part course covering financial markets, portfolio construction theory, applied wealth management, Islamic finance and skill management. (press Release)

Composite Insurer Amãna Takaful PLC reported a profit of Rs. 49.7m as per the unaudited accounts for 2012 with an impressive growth of 22.4% in Gross Written Premium, well above the industry’s 10.6%.The company’s performance in terms of total Gross Written Premium (GWP) of Rs. 1,553.8m for 2012 compares with Rs.1, 269.1m of 2011.
In this performance, the General Insurance business accounted for Rs. 1,193.9m, growing significantly at 23.7% over 2011. The Life segment’s Gross Written Premium of Rs. 359.9m, reflects a growth of 18.5% in the same comparison. These results reflect a substantial upside against the industry performance of 14.6% and 5.5% on General and Life businesses respectively. (Source IASL)……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Shariah, the body of law that governs all aspects of Muslim life, forbids riba, a word in Arabic commonly interpreted as “interest,” though it also means usury and all forms of unearned income. However, modern banking is established on the basis or riba, or paying interest to depositors and charging interest to borrowers.
Islamic banking attempts to provide modern financial services that are permissible in Islamic jurisprudence………………………………………..Full Article: Source