IslamicFinance.de

Libya’s central bank is arranging a law to give permission to lenders and issuers to sell Islamic bonds as part of its efforts to evolve banking services after the fall of Muammar Qaddafi.
Mustafa Abdel Jalil, an Islamic jurist and former justice minister who heads the ruling National Transitional Council, stated that Libya’s banking industry will be made Shariah-compliant.
Bloomberg shows that global sales of sukuk climbed to $18.9 billion in 2011, compared with $13.5 billion in the same period last year.

Global sales of Islamic bonds were almost double in October as progress toward a resolution to Europe’s debt crisis helps push yields to a one-month low.
Khazanah Nasional Bhd., a Malaysian state-owned investment company, Kuala Lumpur-based Property Holdings Bhd. and Turkish Islamic bank Kuveyt Turk Katilim Bankasi AS have sold global bonds that fulfill Islam’s ban on interest this month.

The Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Export Credits and Investment (ICIEC) is still taking into consideration the idea of a third party sukuk guarantee fund.
However, Abdel Rahman Taha, the chief executive officer of ICIEC, states that the corporation has began to work internally to design a new sukuk policy which can be presented as a means to improve the credit structure and appeal of sukuk. It is expected that this new policy will be able to provide the much needed pause to the sukuk market.

It appears that Tenaga Nasional Bhd. (TNB) sold 4.85 billion ringgit ($1.5 billion) of Islamic bonds maturing in five to 20 years at yields between 3.80 % and 4.90 %.
The sukuk was sold in 16 portions and was priced at the lower end of the initial yield guidance.

Reactions were very mixed at the news that Goldman Sachs had registered a $2bn sukuk programme through the Irish Stock Exchange. Some were happy, others were skeptic.
Part of the confusion came from the fact that Goldman did not reveal its assets or end user.
But it doesn't matter if Goldman is merely exploiting a passing opportunity to tap into cheap funding or arbitrage the market, as it is hard to imagine a better way for Islamic finance to show it is efficient and can work as a complementary solution alongside conventional finance.

The Capital Markets Authority of Kenya has just animated the blue touch paper for Sukuk issuance by recommending that all future bond issues have to posess a Shari’ah compliant component to them. This directs that Islamic finance institutions will have an ever-expanding pool of liquidity from which to expand. The ruling will also grant retail customers to buy into the Shari’ah compliant Sukuk market.
The recommendations came after a study by a group chosen by the CMA.
Islamic finance players stated that they are analyzing the recommendations before they issue their views.

The US$ 100 million Sukuk for The Building Materials Company has been successfully arranged and paid for in full on its Maturity date 18 October, 2011. Kuwait Finance House, Liquidity Management Centre, Gulf International Bank and Standard Bank underwrote the sukuk.
The Sukuk was supported by building material factories which supplied an over-collateralization and an added security for all Sukuk holders. It offered a semi-annual return of 100 basis points over US Dollar 6 months LIBOR.

Kuveyt Turk has given a price to its $350m five-year sukuk. It seems that the paper priced at par with an expansion of 447.5 basis points over midswaps and had a profit rate of 5.875 percent.

Citigroup Global Markets Limited and UBS AG have been licensed for Sukuk launch in international markets maximum term of 5 years up to USD 300 million. The reason for this decision is that Bank Asya's resources from abroad must be diversified and increased.
Therefor, Bank Asya is begining negotiations with investors.

Noor Islamic Bank has been assigned to put in order and lead manage more than US $1.4 billion Islamic finance capital market deals in Turkey in the last 18 months, making it the most active UAE bank in the republic.
The bank revealed details of its financial dealings in Turkey on the eve of the Islamic Investment and Finance Forum, scheduled to take place in the Turkish capital Istanbul, from October 24-27., where it will be the Sukuk partner for the event.
During the four-day Islamic Investment and Finance Forum, leading regional and international Islamic finance experts will talk about a range of key topics for the Islamic finance industry including how to animate the global sukuk markets, following the financial crisis; kick starting sukuk markets in frontier economies; new business opportunities for Islamic syndicated finance and the future of Participation (Islamic) banking in Turkey.

Fitch Ratings has given an 'A+/F1+' rating to the trust certificate program conceived by The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (Goldman) and placed the rating on Rating Watch Negative. This program was designed for the issuance of murabaha trust certificates.
These ratings are based entirely on the rating of parent guarantor Goldman. GSI is the purchaser of the commodities being sold by GSCL under a deferred payment arrangement.

Changes are planned in the financial regulations of Senegal, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. These will permit a launch of Sukuk and are allocated to deliver a rebound in the international Sukuk market, a market that has been declining since 2008.
The latest Global Sukuk Market report released by the International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM) shows that Africa accounted for only 0.3% of global Sukuk launches in the decade ending December 2010, all of which came from Sudan with some miniscule activity in The Gambia.
The report also adds that issuance trend displays that Islamic countries will continue to be the main drivers of the Sukuk market in the coming years while others from Europe, Africa, Central Asian Republics and the Far East may join if they see opportunity and advantage in issuing Sukuk.

The $100 million sukuk for the Building Materials Company has been successfully resolved and paid for in full on its maturity date on October 18.
The statement was given by the arrangers and lead managers, Kuwait Finance House (KFH), Liquidity Management Centre, Gulf International Bank, and Standard Bank.

Goldman Sachs has recorded a $2 billion Islamic bond programme, contributing with further evidence of conventional borrowers looking to sharia-complaint funding sources as market volatility makes raising debt finance more difficult.
The investment bank has set up the Cayman Islands-registered Global Sukuk Company Limited special purpose vehicle to launch murabaha-structured sukuk.
The sharia adviser of the programme is Dar Al Istithmar Limited.

It appears that Mashreq Bank is the process of structuring a number of UAE-dirham denominated benchmark Sukuk. Masreq al Islami, the bank's Islamic window's CEO, Moinuddin Malim, stated that the bank was colaborating with three clients, from both the government and private sector who were searching to raise finance in the UAE market.

It seems that Almarai Co is to going to look for shareholder approval of its plan to launch sukuk at a general assembly meeting on Nov. 19.
Shareholders will be asked to accept the company's bond issue programme, and to certify its board of directors to launch the sukuk, once all regualtory approvals are in place.

Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA) preparing up a RM3.5 billion sukuk program to mix funding sources, but it seems that the launch process is likely to take much longer given the prevailing changeable market conditions as a result of the fallout of the euro zone sovereign debt crisis and the downgrading of the US credit rating by Moody's Investors Service.
Mohammed Mubaideen, investor relations manager, TAQA, approved this statement.

Majid Al Futtaim Holding is going to issue a Sukuk program. It seems that the move has been implied as the firm finds it difficult to raise finance through the conventional route as market volatility and uncertainty abounds.
The company had tried to gather $2bn in a conventional medium-term notes program earlier in the year, but despite undertaking a roadshow to advertise the bond, had withdrawn the notes before launch because of poor market conditions.

Kuveyt Türk Participation Bank has assigned HSBC, Kuwait’s Liquidity Management House and Standard Chartered Bank to arrange a series of fixed income investor meetings.

Malaysia’s 2012 Budget is to provide incentives increases Islamic finance, extending tax breaks on Sukuk issuance for a further three-year period.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak stated that a tax deduction on expenses incurred for Sukuk Wakala will be offered for a three-year period from 2012 to encourage more Sukuk launches.