Dana Gas has withdrawn an offer to creditors to exchange its debt of $ 700 million Islamic bond for new notes. Thereby ending the chance of a consensual resolution to a case that could shape the future of the global Islamic finance industry. The gas company is refusing to repay holders of its Islamic bond which matures in October. It said last month it had received legal advice that the bond was no longer Sharia-compliant in the UAE because of changes in Islamic finance interpretations over the recent years, and was therefore not lawful. But creditors say Dana has to pay them back and argue if the sukuk was legal when the deal was struck, it holds, and if it was illegal then it would mean the company is in default.
Saudi Arabia hired Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and HSBC as global coordinators on its international Islamic bond sale. The kingdom also picked Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas among others as lead managers for the sale. The sukuk could come as soon as this month. Saudi secretary-general of the Finance Committee, Mohammad Al Tuwaijri, announced in December the kingdom's plans to raise between $10 billion and $15 billion from international bond markets in 2017 and sell about 70 billion riyals locally. The world’s biggest oil exporter is considering international and domestic debt issues to help finance its budget deficit.
Malaysian telecoms giant Axiata Group on November 13 issued a US$500 million Wakala Sukuk, or Islamic bond, to fund its investment into a Myanmar towers business. This is the largest-ever corporate bond issued with proceeds to be invested into a Myanmar towers business, demonstrating considerable investor confidence in the frontier market. Telecoms towers companies have led the way in terms of innovative cross-border financing into Myanmar – last year Pan Asia Majestic Eagle completed the first cross-border, non-recourse financing arrangement in the country.
A spokesperson for Axiata told The Myanmar Times yesterday that around $125 million of the bond’s proceeds will be used to fund the acquisition of a majority share in Myanmar Tower Company (MTC) under Axiata’s wholly owned subsidiary Edotco Group.
The remaining funds will be used for “general corporate purposes,” she said, though did not disclose whether or not this would include capex for MTC’s Myanmar rollout. In the bond’s prospectus the use of proceeds is listed as “general corporate purpose/other”.
Pakistan's Ministry of Finance selected Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank and Standard Chartered as bookrunners for a U.S. dollar sukuk issue. An official said; the tenor of the bond and the format would be decided soon
Ooredoo QSC has mandated DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, QInvest and QNB Capital to act as joint lead managers and Bookrunners for a proposed US dollar Reg S benchmark Sukuk offering. The offering is expected to be launched, subject to market conditions, following investor roadshows starting 22 November covering Asia, Middle East and Europe.
The New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) has asked half a dozen European banks to submit their official records pertaining to their financial dealings with Turkey's Uzan family. The six banks covered by the order are France based BNP Paribas, Societe Generale and Credit Agricole; Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank of Germany and Standard Chartered. The state banking regulator is investigating the case over the illegal business dealings with Uzans. Standard Chartered assured its full co-operation with the regulators, while representatives of the other European banks either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment.
Kuwaiti aircraft leasing company Alafco has hired Deutsche Bank to advise it on a potential sale of global depositary receipts (GDRs) in London. The bank is looking at Alafco’s operations to ensure it is ready for the additional scrutiny that comes with a London listing. The timing of the GDR sale and the amount, if any, that a listing could raise were still unknown. Alafco made a profit of 25.6 million dinars ($89.7 million) in its last financial year ended on Sept. 30, 2012, a 45 percent decline from the previous year.
Saudi Electricity Co has chosen Deutsche Bank and HSBC Holdings to schedule meetings with fixed income investors from Europe and North America for possible debt agreements. The meetings would be considered as road shows, with the first to be held on March 19 in Los Angeles, CA and would end in London, UK by March 25 of this year. After these road shows, a dollar denominated bond issue would then follow depending on market conditions.
When last week Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid explained his vision of the emirate becoming a global hub for Islamic finance and economy, the head of Islamic finance structuring at Deutsche Bank (DB) in Dubai Ibrahim Qasim was pleased but not really caught by surprise. He considers the initiative a very positive one and thinks it will solidify Dubai and the UAE's current standing as an important Islamic finance hub. He further explains that the UAE already has an advantage in the area of Islamic economy. DB is prepared to help and support the policymakers of the emirates in their ambitions.
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.
A new milestone was reached by the Islamic finance industry of Sri Lanka. The first Shariahbased income fund for the country was recently launched. It has the structure of a unit trust. It will be followed by another unit trust - Adl Mudarabah Fund - which will be launched under the combined expertise of Adl Capital Limited and Comtrust Asset Management (Pvt.) Limited. The Trustee of the fund will be Deutsche Bank. Its role is to monitor all investments.
There is enough evidence that corporate governance and other research referred to as "extra-financial" is helpful for performance improvement of investment portfolios. For instance, in June this year Deutsche Bank released an extensive review examining the most recent academic literature regarding the relationship between environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) factors and investment returns. Some of the most important conclusions were that academic research consistently finds a lower cost of debt and equity capital for companies with better ESG performance characteristics.
Read more on: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/b22c49c8-06e8-11e2-92ef-00144feabdc0.html...
Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) which is the largest sharia-compliant lender in the country, is arranging an issue of a five-year benchmark-sized Islamic bond. The expecting value of the sukuk shall be at least $500 million.
See more under: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/02/qatar-qib-sukuk-idUSL6E8L2BVU2...
Deutsche Bank claims the GCC bond sales will remain strong as companies in these countries look for alternative financial sources as those of European banks that are continuously declining. CEO for the Middle East believes that the GCC region relies a lot on bank loans, which are going to be less and less accessible.
See more under: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-30/deutsche-bank-s-aram-says-gulf-...
Qatar Islamic Bank has made plans of issuing a sukuk in dollar denomination. The move will be part of the bank's sukuk issuance programme worth $1.5 billion. According to a document from the lead arrangers, the banks mandated for the sukuk are Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Standard Chartered and QInvest LLC. Further details on the size of the sukuk are not known yet. The plans include investor meetings in Asia, Middle East and Europe.
More on: http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/09/26/qatar-sukuk-banks-idINL5E8KQ08R...
It seems that Dubai Islamic Bank has issued a $500 million (Dh1.8 billion), five-year sukuk sale after gaining good request.
Helping arrange the Regulation S transaction, after DIB met fixed-income investors in Asia, Middle East and Europe over the past few days, are: Deutsche Bank, DIB, Emirates NBD, HSBC and National Bank of Abu Dhabi.
Fitch Ratings assigned to DIB's $2.5 billion trust certificate issuance program a ‘A 'expected rating.
It seems that small and medium-sized Islamic banks may need to merge if they want to evolve into bigger regional players capable of filling the funding hole left by shrinking Western banks. This statement came from Salah Jaidah, the head of Islamic finance at Deutsche Bank.
He added that whilst Islamic banks might not immediately be able to face the challenge, within time they will be able to reposition themselves.
The Gulf Co-operation Council area has over 100 Islamic banks, aligned from Al Rajhi Bank of Saudi Arabia with a $25 billion market cap to small unlisted lenders.
The idea of a so-called Islamic "mega-bank" has already been promoted in the region by Bahrain-based Al Baraka banking group.
Salah Jaidah was appointed chairman of Islamic finance at Deutsche Bank. Also, the new head of Islamic finance structuring is Ibrahim Qasim.
Hussein Hassan is the former head of Islamic finance of Deutsche Bank. He moved to UBS in Dubai as Global Head of Islamic Finance. It seems that his place was taken by Ilker Guney, a managing director at the firm.
Saudi Oger revealed that it has assigned banks to arrange its first loan to be run by non-Saudi institutions, with syndication expected to begin shortly.
The initial mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners for the deal will be Deutsche Bank, China Development Bank and Emirates NBD.
Abu Dhabi's Al Hilal Bank and Barclays Capital have been assigned responsability as lead arrangers for the APG only.