RUSSIA - VTB: The importance of being Islamic

www.euroweek.com - If VTB manages, on its third attempt, to issue a sukuk then the Russian bank will have achieved for conventional issuers what Goldman Sachs couldn’t and Crédit Agricole didn’t dare. Demonstrating that such business is possible would do a big favour for the Islamic finance market — and the Russians themselves. (source)

LUXEMBOURG - Appetite for Islamic Bonds rises despite "Grexit"-fears

news.xinhuanet.com - DUBAI, May 26 (Xinhua) -- While the Euro zone crisis has been weighing on investors' sentiment and on global economic prospects, the issuance of Islamic bonds witnesses a renaissance in East and West likewise.
Global issuances of Islamic Bonds, known as Sukuk, surged 55 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2012, reaching 43.5 billion U.S. dollars, according to market research agency Zawya.
Despite the escalation of the Euro zone debt crisis in Greece and Spain, where banks suffered withdrawals worth 800 million Euros (one billion dollars) and one billion Euros (1.25 billion dollars) respectively, weighing on global stock indices in recent weeks, new Sukuk issuances are in the global pipeline.
Last May 22, Fernand Grulms, CEO of Luxembourg for Finance, an initiative which promotes Luxembourg as the second largest hub for investment funds, said in Manama at the World Islamic Funds Conference, that the Grand Duchy plans to issue Islamic bonds. These would be the first Triple-A rated Sukuk issued by a Euro zone sovereign issuer.  (source)

UK - IFR Comment: UK needs to move faster to capture Dim Sum market

www.ifre.com - I do hope London’s efforts to develop into a global hub for offshore renminbi debt issuance (aka Dim Sum bonds) are pushed forward more aggressively than similar efforts to promote London as a global centre for Islamic capital markets.

That may sound a little harsh, given the existence of five fully Sharia-compliant UK-registered banks plus Islamic windows at a host of other banks in the UK. But Islamic finance continues to operate in something of commercial/wholesale backwater in the UK, while on the investment side, it’s kind of been pushed into the ethical investment bucket.  (source)

UK - Ethical Asset Manager Launches 'First Shariah-Compliant Investment Sukuk' for Muslim Investors

www.ibtimes.co.uk - Ethical Asset Management (EAM), a UK-based asset management firm that complies with Islamic Shariah law on finance, claims to have launched the world's "first true" investment sukuk (Islamic bond) for Muslims.

A multimillion equity-only investment fund will be raised in order to buy assets in Britain's booming student accommodation market as cities across the country struggle to meet the property needs of their university students.

The instrument will be called the Ethical AM UK Student Accommodation Investment Sukuk.  (source)

TURKEY - BANKING - Bank Asya press conference

www.bankasya.com.tr - Bank Asya board member and general manager Mr. Abdullah CELİK held a press conference on 08.02.2012 and the main topics are listed below:

• Bank Asya continues ongoing negotiations with buyers regarding the sale of its Isik Sigorta (Insurance Subsidiary) shares. Depending on the offers, Bank Asya may sell entire of its shares. (source)

FRANCE - In France, Islamic finance is just waiting for a green light from government

fr.financialislam.com - It is predicted for 4 years an imminent issue of 'sukuk' in France. Nothing like it for now! Yet France has established a framework to accommodate Islamic finance and commercial potential is there. Obstacles to "take off", which was essentially regulatory, are not insurmountable. It is up to governments to solve them.
The absence of reality in everyday sukuks almost forget its definition. With the sukuk, it is halfway between a bond and a share of mutual funds. This is simply a debt instrument representing an interest in a project based on real assets, real estate or infrastructure. (source)

UK - LSE enhances its sukuk listing prowess

www.arabnews.com - The UK Treasury may have reiterated that a sovereign debut benchmark Sukuk is not currently prudent because it would not give “value-for-money” to UK taxpayers, but one UK entity of global repute that is enhancing its Islamic finance business is the London Stock Exchange (LSE). 

In January 2012, the LSE in fact attracted the listing of another two sukuk bringing the total number of sukuk which have listed on the exchange to 42 and the total money raised to over $23.75 billion.  (source)

FRANCE - France’s First Sukuk Hampered by Debt Crisis

islamicfinanceasia.blogspot.com - Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) -- France’s efforts to sell the nation’s first Islamic bonds and attract Shariah investors from the oil-rich Persian Gulf are being hindered by Europe’s debt crisis as borrowing costs rise.

The euro region’s second-biggest economy, which put in place the legal framework to allow banks and other private issuers to sell Islamic bonds in 2009, had its top AAA credit rating cut by Standard & Poor’s on Jan. 13 on concern policy makers are failing to address the effects of the debt crisis. Yields on two-year French government notes have climbed 10 basis points since the one-step reduction, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.  (source)

UK - UK Treasury to rule out sukuk on 'not-value-for-money' basis

The United Kingdom is no where nearer to going to the wholesale sterling market to raise financing through a debut benchmark sovereign sukuk in 2012 than it was in January 2011 when Treasury last confirmed that it would not be “value for money” for the UK taxpayer to do so. (source)

IRELAND - Ireland may be first EU state to sell Islamic bond

www.irishexaminer.com - IRELAND plans to become the first European nation to sell sovereign sukuk — Islam-approved financial certificates — as its equal tax treatment for Islamic-finance products attracts investors.

The Government has agreements with more than 60 countries to avoid double taxation on Islamic transactions, Micheál Smith, the south-east Asia director of IDA Ireland, said.   (source)

UK - CAPITAL MARKETS - UK Experts Eye Islamic Finance Solution

Onislam - CAIRO – A decision by the UK government to put on hold earlier plans for the first Islamic sovereign bond from a western country was criticized as a setback for the initiative that could have provided more security to a shaking economy.

“It would certainly help the UK market if the government decided to go ahead with a benchmark sukuk,” Farmida Bi, partner at Norton Rose, the law firm, told the Financial Times.

“It could galvanize the market and would lead to more interest in Islamic finance in London and [continental] Europe.”  (source)

FRANCE - France awaits Islamic finance

BELIEVING IN SHARIAH BANKING DID NOT YET TRANSLATE INTO A WORKABLE FRENCH SECTOR

For more than 20 years, French banks have offered their expertise in financing operations (BNP Paribas Najmah, Crdit Agricole) for top companies or government projects in the GCC region. They are although a major actor of the Takaful industry (AXA, SCOR). If French companies were able to provide solutions abroad, it nevertheless appears that the only country where there are not yet operating in is, of all places, France. But thats about to change.

FIRST FRENCH PRODUCTS IN ISLAMIC FINANCE In 2007, the French regulator, namely the AMF, was the first to move forward when it published a regulatory instruction concerning funds. At this time, Islamic finance was unknown in France but lead by the French banks, the AMF introduced a little revolution by authorizing funds to use non-financial criteria in their fund management constraints. In order to be fully Shari'ah compliant, it added to the rule the possibility for funds to distribute at most 10% of their annual benefits to a third party which would not be part of the fund shareholders but regulated under the French law. This allowed funds to give non-Shari'ah benefits to charity organisations at the end of each business year. Following the introduction of this new rule, 14 Islamic funds and trackers have been listed in Paris since then and many more are in the process of being listed.  (source)

UK - UK FIRM TO LAUNCH INVESTMENT SUKUK

MANAMA: British-based Sharia-compliant investment firm Solum Asset Management will launch the first "investment sukuk" in the first quarter of next year, treating Islamic bonds as investment vehicles rather than debt instruments, its chief executive said.

Unlike traditional sukuk, which are akin to conventional debt products, the £200 million ($310m) Student Accommodation Investment Sukuk will use equity to provide holders with an annual yield of four to six per cent, said Safdar Alam at the company's launch in Bahrain.  (source)

GERMANY - Why German blushes could have been saved by a vibrant sukuk market

Sovereign Germany might be disappointed that its recent Eurobond offering was not fully subscribed. Perhaps in hindsight, had it instead opted to issue a debut Eurosukuk for the same amount, the story might well have been different.

Sukuk issuers, whether conventional entities such as HSBC Middle East or Goldman Sachs (both of which tapped the sukuk market in 2011, or Islamic banks, agree that market conditions in the sukuk space is more favorable than in the conventional space. And this confidence and appetite for Sukuk is backed by rising demand from big institutional investors in the Middle East and Asia. (source)

UK - UK-based fund to treat sukuk as investment, not debt

MANAMA: British-based, Shariah-compliant investment firm Solum Asset Management will launch the first “investment sukuk” in the first quarter of next year, treating Islamic bonds as investment vehicles rather than debt instruments, its chief executive said.

Unlike traditional sukuk, which are akin to conventional debt products, the 200 million sterling ($310 million) Student Accommodation Investment Sukuk will use equity to provide holders with an annual yield of 4 to 6 percent, said chief executive Safdar Alam at the company’s launch in Bahrain. (source)

FRANCE - PUBLICATIONS - Issuing and Listing Sukuk in France - How to Take Advantage of the Attractive French Legal and Tax Environment

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FRANCE - Credit Agricole may issue Islamic bond

(Reuters) - French lender Credit Agricole (CAGR.PA) is considering either issuing an Islamic bond or creating a wider sukuk program that could lead to several issues, as European banks seek to diversify funding, a senior executive said on Thursday.

"It's something that we're always looking at but it's probably more on the agenda today than yesterday because banks need to diversify funding," Simon Eedle, managing director and global head of Islamic banking, told the Reuters Middle East Investment Summit. (source)

IRELAND - CAPITAL MARKETS - Fitch Rates Goldman's Sukuk Trust Certificate Program 'A+/F1+'; Rating Watch Negative

finance.alphatrade.com - CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Fitch Ratings has assigned an 'A+/F1+' rating to the trust certificate program created by The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (Goldman) and placed the rating on Rating Watch Negative. The issuing entity under the program is Global Sukuk Company Limited (GSCL). This program was created for the issuance of murabaha trust certificates. (source)

IRELAND - CAPITAL MARKETS - Goldman Sachs to list $2bn bond

www.irishtimes.com - IRELAND’S BURGEONING Islamic finance industry got a boost yesterday when financial behemoth Goldman Sachs was approved by the Central Bank to list a $2 billion “sukuk” bond on the Irish Stock Exchange, the Global Sukuk Company.  (source)

FRANCE / KSA - SATORP's debut sukuk oversubscribed 3.5 times

Saudi Aramco Total Refining and Petrochemical Company (SATORP), a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and Total S.A. of France, issued its debut sukuk Sunday and there are signs that several other potential Saudi issuers are lining up to go to the market preferring to raise funds in this way despite the continuing turmoil in the global financial market and economy.

According to the latest information available Sunday, the SATORP bond issue was 3.5 times oversubscribed. (source)