IslamicFinance.de

Allen & Overy, associated with local law firm Abdulaziz AlGasim Law Firm, advised Saudi Electricity Company (SEC), on the successful closure of its $1.75 billion dual-series Sukuk issue. The transaction represents SEC's first international Sukuk issuance and the largest international debt capital markets issuance to date out of Saudi Arabia.
The transaction was organized as a Sukuk al-ijara, with the two series of trust certificates launched by Saudi Electricity Global SUKUK Company.

The National Commercial Bank has recently cooperated in the Islamic Finance Forum coordinated by Harvard University in the United States of America. The forum is a praised annual event that gathers top scholars, researchers and analysts, with economists and industry leaders in Islamic Finance from around the world.
Being at its tenth session this year, the forum's agenda was centered on discussing the role of Islamic finance in the global economic development, underlining the latest challenges facing the growth of the industry and defining the competitiveness and opportunities inherent in Islamic finance as a potential alternative for the conventional financial system.

Qatar is searching to deepen its debt market. Regarding this aspect, it may list local-currency government bonds and sukuk on the country's bourse this year.
Qatar began to sell treasury bills in May to achieve excess funds in the banking sector and set benchmark rates for companies to issue local-currency debt.
Moreover, the country could spend close to $100 billion (Dh367 billion) in "the medium-term" on projects, involving the completion of a port and airport, a metro system and roads.

According to MCIS Zurich Insurance Bhd and Bangkok Bank Bhd, Johor Corp will apparently pay less than AAA issuers to sell US$976 million of sukuk on local-government guarantees.
They say that Johor Corp could price the 10-year Islamic notes to yield 30 basis points more than non-Islamic sovereign bonds.

Dar Al Istithmar finished receiving the approval of Islamic scholars for the issue and the next move is depending from now on on Goldman.
Goldman's plan was to become one of the first top Western banks to gather money through Islamic bonds, but it attracted controversy in the industry, and the bank has not so far continued with the plan.
Some analysts have implied that Goldman might use the proceeds of the sukuk to lend money to clients for interest, which would not comply with Islamic law, and that the issue might not trade at par value on the Irish exchange, which would also contravene sharia law.

It seems that National Australia Bank (NAB) is taking into consideration a sale of up to $500 million of Sukuk as Australian investors request less risky investments.
According to two people familiar with the deal, the bank is considering the sale, which would make it the first institution to issue Sukuk in Australia.
Crescent Wealth thinks that the investable universe for Islamic funds in Australia is worth between $4 billion and $8 billion, with potential to grow to between $7 billion and $13 billion by 2019.

Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) has repaid in full a $750 million (Dh2.75 billion) five-year sukuk which matured on March 22 from its own sources, prooving the bank’s financial strength and comfortable liquidity position.
The sukuk was launched in 2007, through a special purpose vehicle, DIB Sukuk Company Limited, located in the Cayman Islands, being the first sukuk to be listed on both the Dubai International Financial Exchange (DIFX) and the London Stock Exchange.

Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Development Co. (ALARKAN) is certain that it will be able to repay a $1 billion Islamic bond maturing in July.
Saudi Arabia’s largest property developer has been developing cash reserves to repay the bond and can use assets and land as collateral to secure funding in the case of a shortfall.

Dubai Investments is in talks with investors and financial institutions to fund a second phase of the Mussafah manufacturing unit of Emirates Float Glass.
Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy, officially inaugurated the upgraded Emirates Float Glass (EFG) factory, wholly-owned by Dubai Investments, at the Abu Dhabi Industrial City in Mussafah.

Conglomerate Dubai Investments could look to gather up to 1 billion dirhams ($272.3 million) in 2012 through sale of a sukuk to finance the expansion of its manufacturing units and repay debt.
The company is already in discussions with an Italian lender for a $200 million loan and a sukuk issue will only be taken into consideration if the loan deal does not go through. The statement came from Chief Executive Khalid bin Kalban.
Some of the funds from the sukuk will be used for the expansion of Emirates Float Glass factory, the conglomerate’s glass manufacturing unit.

Middle East bond sales are departing to a record start this year after political unrest that swept through some nations in 2011 decreased and as concern wanished that Europe’s debt crisis would disturb the request for regional debt.
Regional governments and companies raised $10.1bn in bonds in until now in 2012. A $4bn sukuk sale in Saudi Arabia, the biggest Arab economy, conducted a 55% rise in sales from the year-ago period.
Mohieddine Kronfol, Dubai-based chief investment officer for global sukuk and Middle East and North Africa fixed income at Franklin Templeton Investments, noted that they anticipate issuance to increase in the next 12 to 24 months, particularly with banks having to work harder to secure funding and extend credit to the private sector.

Social Finance, Ltd. created a bond with social impact. Background on this project is provided free for download and could be a good base for innovation in the Islamic finance industry:

"In September 2010, our sister organization, Social Finance, Ltd., launched the world’s first Social Impact Bond in the United Kingdom. Targeted at reducing prison recidivism, the Peterborough pilot generated world-wide interest in the potential of this innovative financial instrument. We established Social Finance, Inc. in January 2011, to bring the Social Impact Bond to the United States. Since our founding, we have been collaborating with government, investors, nonprofit organizations, and thought leaders on how Social Impact Bonds might realign incentives for delivering social outcomes and augment public funding and philanthropy to support our collective efforts to improve the lives of individuals and communities in need.

Dear Reader,

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The technical details, and the money transfer via paypal is organised by Kapipal a new online fundraising tool:

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Wa at Taufiq min Allah, all the best,

Michael Saleh Gassner

Dear Readers,

Islamic finance media are a tricky service. This is true for various reasons: The Internet eats up the revenues, because everything ought to be free. Islamic banks are still a niche phenomena, and international banks like UBS or Deutsche are almost as large as the entire global Islamic finance industry. Consequently the marketing budgets are much lower, too.

Last not least, who should advertise? The banks among themselves or to the clients? Advertising from bank to bank, does usually not make much sense, but real client oriented formats are hard to find, too. May be this is a niche. Others, who could finance Islamic finance media are basically the service providers to the banks, but due to the limited number of Islamic financial insitutions, direct marketing, e.g. face to face meetings will be preferred.

This in short is the background why Islamic finance media are not so well established in terms of journalism and research, but mostly reflecting the press release as criticised by the makers of the Islamic Globe. See: http://www.theislamicglobe.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article...

The government is thinking about up sizing the issuance of the nation’s fourth ever retail Islamic debt papers (sukuk) after seeing strong request from local individual investors.
About 14,000 investors have ordered Rp 11.1 trillion worth of the Islamic bonds within the first six days of the offering up to Monday, already nearing selling agents’ more than Rp 13 trillion commitment.
Many agents have revised their targets. The agents composed of 13 banks and 11 securities firms, including Bank Central Asia, Bank Mandiri, Citibank, OCBC NISP, Danareksa Sekuritas and Trimegah Securities.

Almarai Co. raised 1 billion riyals ($266.6 million) through a sukuk, or Islamic bond, launched on March 7. It is the first time that Almarai has launched public debt, having started roadshows for the offering last month.
The arranger of the sukuk was HSBC Saudi Arabia.

It appears that Dubai's Jebel Ali Free Zone is discussing with banks how to repay its Dh7.5 billion ($2bn) Islamic bond until November, with most of the liability set to be given up by using a syndicated loan and a new sukuk. The banks that are taken into consideration are: Dubai Islamic Bank, National Bank of Abu Dhabi and Standard Chartered.
Although no details have been set up, the majority of the sum will be capitulated into new facilities, with a small amount coming from internal cash reserves.

According to CIMB Group Holdings Bhd and RHB Capital Bhd, the rally in ringgit-denominated Islamic bonds that pushed yields to an eight-month low will stop after the central bank ruled out a cut in interest rates.
After the interview with Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz, yields may rise.The governor noted that the benchmark policy rate of 3 percent is supportive of economic growth ahead of a March 9 review.
Overseas funds reduced holdings of local-currency government Islamic bonds by 11 percent in January to RM490 million (US$163 million), the least in a year.

Tunisia's Islamist government is planning to launch the country's first Islamic bonds (sukuk) this year in order to finance its budget deficit following last year's uprising.
Adnan Ahmed Yousif, chief executive of Bahrain-based Al Baraka Banking Group, an Islamic banking conglomerate with operations across North Africa, added that the government is now in talks with banks.

With the issue of the world’s largest single tranche Sukuk, the industry’s attention is again on that fair-weather barometer the omnipotent Sukuk.
Beside the Saudi issue, it’s been a busy week in the Islamic capital markets, with significant issues in Malaysia and the MENA region and announcements from Nigeria, South Africa, The Gambia and Iran. It seems that the appetite for Sukuk is not diminishing. But the real quesstion is, if this is a good thing. After all, the global depression playing out in extremis in the eurozone and Middle America can be followed back to the wild abandon that individuals and governments ran up their credit card bills and the irresponsible and myopic lending practices of the banks just interested in short-term profits and next year’s bonuses.