IslamicFinance.de

As the referendum on whether to leave or remain in the European Union looms in the UK, voices are getting louder, particularly in the country’s financial industry that it would not necessarily be a good idea to vote for a Brexit. Since the weight of the UK in the global financial market is substantial – the financial sector of the City of London has a 20% share in the global market for trading foreign securities and a sizeable part of it depends on the UK’s access to the internal EU market – such a strong position would be certainly threatened.
This could have serious impact on the growing role of Islamic finance in Europe which is entrenched in the UK and from there makes its way into the continent. Since the 1990s, when the first mortgages in the UK were set up in line with Shariah law, the country has aggregated the most advanced experience in Shariah-compliant finance in the Western world. Corporate sukuk followed a decade later, and in 2014, the UK became the first country in the EU to issue some sovereign sukuk and listed them on the London stock exchange. From then on, Islamic finance steadily entered the rest of Europe.

The revival of investor sentiment and interest in initial public offerings (IPOs) in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries experienced in 2014, slowed down in the first quarter (Q1) of 2015, slightly picking up pace in Q2 and further slowing down in Q3 of the year, according to PwC’s Capital Markets and Accounting Advisory Services team.
Regional IPO activity in Q3 is usually slower due to summer holidays, the holy month of Ramadan and Eid. This seasonal trend was perhaps exaggerated in Q3 as markets absorbed the impact of continued lower oil prices, growing geopolitical concerns and wider economic uncertainty, thus potentially impacting new issuers coming to market.

The revival of investor sentiment and interest in initial public offerings in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries experienced in 2014, slowed down in the first quarter of 2015, slightly picking up pace in the second and further slowing down in third quarter of the year, according to PwC's Capital Markets and Accounting Advisory Services team.
Regional IPO activity in Q3 is usually slower due to summer holidays, the holy month of Ramadan and Eid. This seasonal trend was perhaps exaggerated in Q3 as markets absorbed the impact of continued lower oil prices, growing geopolitical concerns and wider economic uncertainty, thus potentially impacting new issuers coming to market.

Family businesses must adapt faster, innovate sooner and become more professional in the way they run their operations if they are to remain successful. These are some of the findings of the second PwC survey of 44 family firms in the Middle East, titled The family factor: Professionalising the Middle Eastern family firm. Overall, this year’s survey indicates that family firms remain dynamic and resilient. Indeed, family businesses in the Middle East have been markedly more successful than their global counterparts. Middle East family businesses are also more ambitious in the medium term. The report can be downloaded at www.pwc.com/familybusinesssurvey.

PwC has published its new report titled ‘Resetting the Compass: Navigating success in deal-making for mature market sellers and high growth market buyers’. Companies in high-growth markets (HGM) invested US$161 billion into mature market companies between 2008 and 2012, outstripping their combined investment of US$151 billion in the opposite direction, according to the report. In 2013, the volume of outbound deals from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to mature markets ranked higher than the average reported over the last five years. The UK and Europe continue to hold strong appeal for GCC buyers, accounting for the majority of mature market deals from the GCC. The GCC region’s sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) and state-owned enterprises continue to drive much of the outbound deal value but have cut back on the size of their overseas investments into mature markets since 2007/2008.

Despite efforts to support financial literacy, only 35 percent of teens know how to manage a credit card and only 20 percent of teachers feel prepared to teach the subject. To help combat this critical social gap, some leading companies have started initiatives. For example, PwC is mobilizing its 35,000 people who are skilled in finance, accounting and business to address youth education with a focus on financial literacy. The firm’s centerpiece commitment, formally titled PwC’s Earn Your Future is a five-year commitment to reach more than 2.5 million students and educators and represents a $160 million investment for the firm, $60 million in cash and 1 million service hours.

The Pearl Initiative has launched a new piece of regional research focused on family firm governance. The Report “Family Matters, Governance Practices in GCC Family Firms” is based on research carried out jointly by the Pearl Initiative and PwC.

The research is based on interviews with over a hundred family firms across the GCC.

PricewaterhouseCoopers offers a full day event about Takaful in Germany language. Below more details:

PwC Talk
Sharia-konforme Lebensversicherungsprodukte
16. September 2010, Köln
20. September 2010, München

Während Sharia-konforme Bankprodukte auf Veranstaltungen bereits recht eingehend diskutiert wurden, ist das Thema Sharia-konformer Lebensversicherungsprodukte bisher kaum Gegenstand eines fachlichen Forums gewesen. Die Veranstaltung möchte daher den Versuch unternehmen, diesem weißen Fleck auf der deutschen Landkarte der Produktentwicklung eine erste Topographie zu geben. Der wachsende Anteil der muslimischen Bevölkerung in Deutschland und Europa ist hierzu hinreichender Anlass.

Zielgruppe

Die Veranstaltung richtet sich an Führungskräfte und Mitarbeiter von Versicherungsunternehmen aus den
Bereichen Kapitalanlage und Steuern/Recht sowie Führungskräfte und Mitarbeiter von Kreditinstituten,
Investmentbanken oder Asset-Management-Gesellschaften für die Bereiche Versicherungen, Steuern/Recht und Investment/ Kapitalanlage.