Global news and insight for corporate financial professionals
Market Focus | Middle East Investment Banking
Although investment bankers remain cautious about Middle Eastern prospects in the wake of falling oil prices, M&A activity and debt issuance remain bright spots.
Saudi Arabia | Banking Sector
Highly capitalized and boasting healthy margins, Saudi banks are unlikely to feel much fallout from the country’s slowing economy and the impact of low oil prices.
Market Report | Islamic Finance
New structures and issuers and greater standardization are pushing issuance in the global sukuk market.
Sukuk Outlook 2015
Hit by the double curse of falling oil prices and rising interest rates, global issuance of sukuk— shariah-compliant Islamic bonds—slowed sharply in the final quarter of 2014.
MARKET REPORT | ISLAMIC TRADE FINANCE
Offering inventory financing to commodity traders brings much-needed liquidity to the Islamic trade finance market.
CAPITAL MARKETS | ISLAMIC FINANCE
To diversify its sources of financing, Goldman Sachs plans to issue a benchmark Islamic bond, at a time when demand for sukuk is outrunning supply. Meanwhile, South Africa is planning its first sovereign sukuk, and the Egyptian government is working on a new sukuk law, following the military’s overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last year.
FINANCE & CAPITAL | TRENDS: Islamic Finance
It is not only investors in the traditional Muslim markets in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey who are tapping into the financial and emotional benefits of shariah exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Egypt's President El-Sisi may have made his job a lot tougher by branding the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group.
Nigeria’s first shariah-compliant bond, a $62 million issue by Osun state late last year, could be the start of an Islamic finance boom in Africa.
ANNUAL AWARDS: BEST ISLAMIC FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS 2014
Islamic finance is going mainstream, with new banks opening and new regulatory endeavors under way in this dynamic global mar
Global Finance Names the World’s Best Islamic Finance Providers 2014.
MIDDLE EAST 2014 SUPPLEMENT By Gordon Platt Islamic finance is going mainstream, with Western countries planning to issue their first sovereign sukuk. It still constitutes only a small percentage of total global financial assets, and most activity is ...
MILESTONES By Gilly Wright By awarding HSBC and Linklaters as external advisers, the UK government is a little closer to its widely anticipated issue of a sovereign sukuk, or Islamic bond. Last October in London during the World Islamic Economic ...
SPECIAL REPORT By Andrew Cunningham Al Rajhi tops the rankings of Safest Islamic Banks in the GCC. The use of Islamic finance arouses strong emotions. For its supporters, it offers an ethical way of conducting financial transactions that is far ...
On October 29, a little piece of history was made when the UK finally announced it would become the first Western country to issue a sovereign sukuk, or Islamic bond.
SPECIAL REPORT: ISLAMIC TRADE FINANCE By Anita Hawser Islamic trade finance is of increasing interest, but whether it will be successful depends on market forces. “Shariah-compliant trade finance is an ancient tradition with a long history of supporting economic activity ...
REGIONAL SUPERSECTION — STEPPING UP THE COMPETITION By Gordon Platt Does the Gulf Cooperation Council need yet another international financial center? Oil-rich Abu Dhabi thinks it does. The United Arab Emirates is about to open its second ...
REGIONAL SUPERSECTION The six nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)—Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE—have a common need to adjust to a changing global oil market as a result of the surge in US oil ...
REGIONAL SUPERSECTION — SEEKING A NEW MODEL By Anita Hawser As the infrastructure boom continues, it may be time for GCC countries to reevaluate how they select and fund new projects. “Abu Dhabi cannot rely solely on ...