IslamicFinance.de

Saudi Arabia replaced the head of its Capital Market Authority with Mohammad Al al-Sheikh, a World Bank executive representing Saudi Arabia. Former chairman Abdulrahman A Al Tuwaijri was relieved of his duties by royal decree, without giving a reason. The action caused speculation that the kingdom will move toward opening its equities market to foreign investors. Al-Sheikh is expected to start regulating the Saudi financial market with new laws and regulations.

Shuaa Capital announced the establishment of Saudi-based Gulf Installments Company, which focuses on providing installment and lease financing to businesses across a variety of sectors and assets. Lease periods are available from 1 to 4 years and can be tailored to suit the needs of each individual client based on the term, down payment and rental plan. David Hunt was appointed CEO of Gulf Installments Company which will be operated by Gulf Finance under a management contract with Shuaa.

Zain Saudi has extended the maturity of a nine billion riyal ($2.40bn) Islamic loan for another four weeks until February 27. The lending banks accorded to put back the maturity of the murabaha facility for the seventh time since it was agreed in July 2009. Zain Saudi said it would use the extension to conclude negotiations with lenders over a new long-term financing agreement, but also warned the existing facility could be further extended.

Bena'a Productive Families Center (Jana) in the Eastern Region and the Saudi Arabian Oil Company ( Saudi Aramco ) have signed a partnership deal which will contribute to the development of skills amongst women who will own and run small-scale projects in different parts of the Kingdom. Saudi Aramco will fund 250 projects which are scheduled for launching in the next six months and will be run by women. Among other thins the program will be dedicated to train productive families and prepare women both economically and socially to realize production sustainability for their projects. Next year, Jana plans to create 9,500 jobs for women in eight cities.

The Kingdom Holding Company ( KHC ) established a Shariah Committee to study the gradual conversion of future sources for loans for the company to be Shariah compliant. The committee consists of chairman Sheikh Abdullah Sulaiman Al Manee'a, two members and a secretary general. During the first meeting it was decided to prepare an integrated strategic plan for the conversion of future loans in accordance with the Islamic Shariah.

SEDCO Holding Group has announced the appointment of Anees Ahmed Moumina as Chief Executive Officer succeeding Dr. Adnan Abdulfattah Soufi whose three-year term expired at the end of 2012. Moumina has had a banking career that has brought him into contact with a variety of business sectors including contracting, trading, manufacturing, investments, real estate, transportation, leasing, government and public sector activities, remedial management and Islamic banking.

Arab leaders from various countries will take part in the third Arab Economic and Social Development Summit in Riyadh starting on January 21st. The summit will last two days and aims to break tradition and tackle the people's hopes in the times of the Arab Spring uprisings. The foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, Prince Saud al-Faisal, pointed out that the summit must concentrate on problems and issues concerning the lives and aspirations of the people.

NCB Capital has launched AlAhli Global Natural Resource Fund aiming to enrich investment portfolios with natural resources due to rising demand for those in emerging markets. Investors are given the opportunity to achieve capital growth by investing primarily in the listed shares of international companies that are involved in the natural resource related sectors. AlAhli Global Natural Resource Fund is a Shariah-compliant fund denominated in US Dollars with a minimum subscription amount of $2000, managed by investment professionals.

Al Rajhi Takaful posted a net profit of SAR 1,477 thousand for the last quarter of 2012. Compared to that, the net profit for the corresponding period in 2011 was SAR 5,125 thousand, which marks a decrease of 71.2%. The net profit before Zakat is SAR 2,118 thousand for Q4 2012, contrasting with profit before Zakat of SAR 5,125 thousand for the same period in 2011, thus reaching a decrease of 58.7%. There is a 55.2% difference in net profit after Zakat betwen Q3 and Q4 in favour of the former. In Q4 it was SAR 3,294 thousand.

Bank AlJazira registered a net income of SR 98 million for the fourth quarter of 2012. Compared to Q4 2011 this is a decrease of 11% from SR110 million. The difference compared to Q3 2012 is 25% in favour of Q3. Other important parts of the annual financial results of the bank are a total operating income of SR372 million for the last quarter of 2012 which is a 13% increase to the SR330 million for Q4, 2011. The net special commission income for Q4 2012 registered an increase of 25% from Q4 2011 reaching SR247 million.

According to research by Kuwait Finance House, the total of sukuk issuance by end of 2012 has amounted to $131bn. This is an increase of 54% compared to 2011. The total sukuk issuance in December is $8bn marking a 61% increase in comparison with the previous year. Malaysia is the country which issued the most sukuk, followed by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Indonesia.

The countries of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have a very high chance of success in the development of their financial markets and promoting their competitiveness. This is shown in a recent research by Deutsche Bank. One of the key factors stressed on in the research report is progress made in corporate governance-related matters. The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf countries has made significant advances in establishing effective financial market regulation and oversight as well as a strong grip on market abuse and financial fraud. Continuing to follow this direction and committing the resources needed to achieve optimal consistency and effectiveness in regulation and market supervision is seen as crucial for achieving the goals of financial development and economic diversification.

Alinma Bank registered a net income for the fourth quarter as high as SAR 208 million. Compared to that, it was SAR 136 million in the same period in the previous year. Thus, the increase is 53%. Compared to the third quarter of 2012, the increase is 6%. The total operating income in 2012 reached SAR 490 million, which with SAR 490 million is 0.6% higher than the SAR 487 million for the same quarter of last year.

Standard & Poor's affirmed the rating of the Islamic Development Bank at 'AAA/A-1+'. The stand-alone credit profile of the bank is 'aaa', which is a reflection of the rating agency's assessment of the bank's "very strong" business profile and "extremely strong" financial profile. The outlook is said to be stable. According to expectations, IsDB will continue and maintain its strong credit metrics.

According to an announcement by the Capital Market Authority, the listing and trading of the initial issue of Saudi ORIX Leasing Company’s Sukuk will take place on Sunday, January 13th 2013. Its symbol will be 1031.

According to a study by the National Bonds GCC Savings Index, about 90% of the people in a number of GCC countries feel they are not saving enough for their future. The percentage of people, who do not put away any money for future saving, is 71% of residents in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman, 74% in Saudi Arabia and 65% in the UAE. The study further shows that in Saudi Arabia 92% felt they were not saving enough. The percentages in the other countries involved in the study are 91% in Kuwait, 88% in Bahrain, 87% in the UAE, 85% in Oman, and 84% in Qatar.

According to a statement by Abdul Aziz Al-Othman - CEO of Saudi Kuwait Finance House - the company has achieved a profit of SR19m since the beginning of 2012 die to investment in various short and long term investments. He particularly stressed on the strength of the Saudi economy and its numerous opportunities. This way, the company's growth potential is being continuously reinforced. Moreover, he pointed out that Saudi economy played a key role in increasing positive performance indicators during the coming period.

In 2013 the government of Saudi Arabia plans to issue bonds backed by the Kingdom’s Ministry of Finance. The bonds will be used to fund construction work at airports in Riyadh and Jeddah. According to the Kingdom’s General Authority for Civil Aviation (GACA), its plans include the issuance of a second sukuk at the end of 2012 in order to help fund its SR27 billion ($7.2 billion) airport in Jeddah. The first sukuk which was launched earlier in 2012 managed to raise SR15 billion to help fund the Jeddah airport development.

According to experts from Ernst & Young, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are poised to become the most attractive private equity (PE) destinations in the MENA region. Saudi Arabia is the first in the ranking of the most attractive PE investment destinations in 2011. The reasons for that were the initiatives of the Kingdom's government and its relaxed foreign ownership norms. There are some basic factors such as demographics, the robustness of its financial institutions, a very healthy economic outlook and steady growth which play a key role in positioning Saudi Arabia as a leading PE destination.

This year's record of $46 billion in terms of global sukuk sales is very likely to be exceeded in the coming year. A key reason is that countries like Oman, Tunisia and Egypt are just entering the market. Borrowing costs on Sharia-compliant debt have decreased 11.4 percentage points reaching 2.82% since the end of 2008 due to central banks in Europe, the US and Japan pumping funds into their economies in order to enhance growth rates. A rise in the Islamic banking assets will drive the demand so that it can reach $1.8 trillion next year. Compared to that, in 2011 the demand was $1.3 trillion.