IslamicFinance.de

The Malaysian National Mortgage Corporation - Cagamas - has made an announcement about the issuance of its MYR 125 million multi-tenured debt securities comprising Sukuk Commodity Murabahah and Conventional Medium Term Notes (CMTNs) of MYR 90 million and MYR 35 million respectively. The issuance will be carried out in benchmark 3, 5, 7, 10, 12 and 15-year tenures. The respective yields are 3.35%, 3.50%, 3.75%, 3.90%, 4.00% and 4.14%. They are also equivalent to a 31 basis points to 45 basis points range above comparable Malaysia Government Securities (MGS). Proceeds will be used for the purchase of Islamic as well as conventional housing loans from the financial system.

Meezan Bank Limited has received the approval of its Shariah Supervisory Board (SSB) for the concept for the air-time based Sukuks which will be issued in Pakistan. Furthermore, detailed guidelines for Islamic banks involved in sharing of security with other banks for long-term Islamic projects and structured financing have been approved. The resolution was made at the 19th meeting of the SSB of Meezan Bank at Darul Uloom Korangi, Karachi. There, a summary of Meezan Bank's Shariah audit was presented to the SSB.

The resolution of the CMA Board of their approval of the offering of Saudi ORIX Leasing Company’s sukuk has been issued. The total size of the offering has not been determined yet, this will be done at a later stage by the company. It is soon expected for the prospectus to be made public.

Danajamin Nasional Bhd has assured guarantees for sukuk and bond programmes worth RM5.54 billion. This includes the latest guarantee for the Islamic facilities of Bolton Bhd. Bolton's seven year RM230 million Islamic Medium Term Notes (IMTN) programme is guaranteed by Danajamin. RM150 million of sukuk have already been issued in three tranches and fully subscribed.

Following the example of other North African countries, Morocco is working on the draft of a law aiming to allow the sale of Islamic bonds. Thus, the country makes efforts to lure more investors to their debt after the surge of global sukuk offerings reached record amounts. The bill will be put to parliament immediately after the completion of the draft. Details on the exact time when this is to be expected are not revealed. Other two African countries - Tunisia and Egypt - are working on draft laws concerning sukuk sales as well.

According to a recent statement, Saudi Hollandi Bank has completed a SR1.4 billion ($373.3 million) sukuk issue. It is further said that despite the seven-year maturity of the subordinated sukuk, it can be redeemed by the issuer after the end of the fifth year. The price of the Islamic bond 1.15% higher than the six-month Saudi interbank offered rate. The issuance was marketed to Saudi investors, among which were government funds, banks, insurance companies, corporates and sophisticated investors.

SAUDI Hollandi Bank had emitted a sukuk in value of SR1.4 billion ($373.3 million) with a maturity period of seven years, but it can be redeemed by issuer already after the end of the fifth year. The aim of the issuance is mainly focused on developing the Islamic business of the bank by following prudent asset management strategy and assets-liabilities mix and maintaining a sufficient capital buffer.

A RM500mil (US$163mil) Islamic bond has been issued by the National Bank of Abu Dhabi. The issued sukuk has an interest rate of 4.75% and will mature in 15 years. The joint lead managers of the transaction besides the Malaysian national bank were HSBC, Maybank Investment Bank and Standard Chartered.

Due to a shortage of Islamic sovereign debt, the new dollar-denominated sukuk of Indonesia rallied at the double pace of than non-Islamic securities this week. The sales gathered $5 billion in orders for $1 billion on offer. The bonds, which will reach maturity in 2022, are sold at a coupon of 3.3%. Since November 19th, the yield fell 17 basis points reaching 3.13%. Compared to that, not Shariah-compliant bonds declined only 8 basic points to 2.91%. The current 2.82% are a record low for Shariah-compliant borrowing costs in the international markets. It is possible that next year the shortage will become even more acute because of the government's plans to cut overseas sales in order to reduce its foreign-currency risk.

The new rating of Tanjung Langsat Port Sdn Bhd's sukuk musyarakah bonds and RM135mil musyarakah commercial papers/musyarakah medium-term notes programme (MCP/MMTN) by Malaysian Rating Corp Bhd (MARC) is lower than the previous one. It was downgraded from A-IS and MARC-2ID/A-ID to BBB+IS and MARC-3ID/BBB+ID respectively. The downward change in rating is a reflection of the company's continuous losses and weak cashflow due to a delay in the commencement of its port operation.

Last month, the dominant tone in Rasmala was one of "risk on" due to fluctuations in $ interest rates which had little bearing on Sukuk pricing in the region. The nervousness in the international market only led to a brief halt in the local market followed by soldiering on as soon as positive sentiment returned. The striving for yield continued at a quick pace. This is evident by the strong performance of some yielding names in the conventional space which were previously unloved but higher. An example of such yielding names is Dubai Holdings 14s and 17s which reached an increase of more than 2% and 3% respectively on the month.

Oil palm plantation firm Golden Agri-Resources has issued its first sukuk in Malaysia worth RM1.5 billion (S$600 million). The sukuk will expire in five-year's time - in November 2017. The funds gained through the sukuk are planned to be used for the general corporate purposes of the company and are expected to strengthen its financial flexibility for growth. The issuance of the Islamic bond is a part of a RM5 billion programme.

After the request of Dubai World of six-month delay on payments on US$26 billion in debt in 2009, default became an extremely dirty word. Consequently, when this year Dana Gas failed to repay US$920 million on its sukuk, the local press was hesitant whether or not to call this a default. During the global economic and financial crisis, the UAE and Dubai in particular were shook by the credit rating agencies, investors and the international press. Fortunately, multibillion-dollar bailout from Abu Dhabi averted the worst. Until recently, companies, which faced inability to repay their debt, looked for restructuring before deadline. Dana Gas made an exception, however, they managed to come up with a restructuring deal very quickly, thus demonstrating development in terms of maturity of the Islamic finance market.

The main focus of Islamic Finance News Forum was the continuous rise of the Islamic capital markets in the Gulf region as well as worldwide. According to managing director and chief executive officer of Alinma Bank - Abdulmohsen A. Al-Fares - the Sukuk market is part of Islamic Capital Market (ICM) and is growing at a quick pace. He further pointed out that even though the total ICM make up less than 2% of the worldwide bond issues, it still is a promosing area since Sukuk issues in 2011 amounted to about 84.4 billion worldwide with the tendency to grow further.

Fitch Ratings claims that after Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank's (ADIB) hybrid Tier 1 Sukuk further UAE banks are likely to follow their example and issue Basel III-compliant bonds. Both conventional and Shari’ah-compliant banks are expected to issue Tier 1 products in the coming year. Fitch also noted that relatively high levels of capital are a necessity for banks in the Gulf region in order to deal with the difficulties in the operating environment. Moreover, hybrid Tier 1 instruments are believed to be a cost-effective means of accessing a wider investor base.

Omani real estate firm Tilal Development Company has persistently been asking the Capital Market Authority (CMA) for approval to raise funds by issuing a sukuk. According to Abdullah bin Salem Al Salmi - executive president of CMA - as soon as Tilal are ready with a plan, CMA are ready to grant them approval for raising money by means of sukuk. Currently, the next step is for Tilal to submit a formal application for the issue. CMA are encouraging companies to float sukuk issues. The only thing necessary for bringing regulation for sukuk is a minor amendment in the Capital Market Law.

Dana Gas has eventually agreed upon restructuring its sukuk worth $920 million. Thus, it will potentially avert the seizure of its assets in Egypt. According to Dana's statement on Wednesday, the company intends to pay its sukuk holders a mix of cash and new bonds which will be split between a sukuk and a convertible. There is no information on what proportion would be in cash. This solution to Dana's default is believed to serve best the interests of all stakeholders.

Dear Reader,

The German language book on Islamic finance by the Editor of IslamicFinance.de and Dr Wackerbeck from Booz Consultants is now translated to Chinese.

Please find the biographical information below:

Authors: Michael Gassner / Philipp Wackerbeck
Title: Islamic Finance – Islam-gerechte Finanzanlagen und
Finanzierungen
ISBN number: 978-7-5139-0217-5
PUBLISHER: Beijing - Democracy and Construction Press
Pre-Publication Date: 2012.7

Full biographical details: http://db.lib.bua.edu.cn/asord/asorditem.php?asord_marc_no=0001344540

Orders: http://www.amazon.cn/%E4%BC%8A%E6%96%AF%E5%85%B0%E9%87%91%E8%9E%8D-%E7%B...

Book review about the German language original: http://www.rpi-virtuell.net/workspace/24686AD5-936C-476D-9EA0-65E2968590...

Best regards,

Michael Gassner

A few days ago, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank launched a sharia-compliant hybrid Islamic bond worth $1bn, thus aiming to boost its core capital. The Tier 1 perpetual sukuk has no particular maturity date. It was launched at a profit rate of 6.375%. Even though the structure of the sukuk is rather rare and unusual for the Middle East, the demand is high. This means that that ADIB offered enough of an incentive to reel in investors. It can be expected that more bonds of a similar kind may follow this issue.

A 50 basis-point premium for a 20-year sukuk over non-Islamic sovereign debt was paid by the Finance Ministry. This makes it the biggest spread for government-guaranteed syariah-compliant notes in 2012. Turus Pesawat Sdn was appointed to sell the securities which are intended to fund aircraft purchases for Malaysian Airlined. The company managed to sell RM3.4bil of debt in total. The yield of the RM1.65bil portion of 2032 notes was 4.36%.