• The Malaysian International Islamic Financial Centre (MIFC), said Islamic funds would likely grow 5.05% per annum to reach US$77bil by 2019.
• $9.5 trillion of Muslims wealth remain outside the global Islamic financial industry. Quoting the recent Islamic Wealth Management Report 2016 published by Edbiz Consulting, Professor Humayon Dar shared that 40 per cent of Islamic wealth in concentrated in non-Muslim countries issuance in the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council has dropped 33% to US$9.9bil in 2015, the poorest showing since 2011, sales are expected to gather pace next year as Qatar and Saudi Arabia lead spending, said Mohamad Safri Shahul Hamid, the Kuala Lumpur-based senior managing director and deputy chief executive officer of CIMB Islamic Bank Bhd, a unit of CIMB Group. More
• Qatar is spending US$182 billion infrastructure such as roads and stadiums as it prepares to host the soccer World Cup in 2022.
• Indonesian government has set aside over 300 trillion rupiah (US$21.9bil) for infrastructure next year and may step up sukuk sales to fund those projects, said CIMB’s Safri.Saudi Arabia’s Bank Albilad plans to issue 1 to 2 billion riyals ($267-533 million) of sukuk by the end of the second quarter of 2016 to finance expansion, chief executive Khaled al-Jasser told CNBC Arabia More
• Turkey Kuwait Finance House’s Turkish subsidiary Kuvey Turk has issued a $350 million 10 year sukuk with a yield of 7.9 per cent to boost its Tier 2 capital. The Islamic bond will be listed on the Irish Stock Exchange More
• Bahrain Al Salam Bank reports net profit of BHD 10.55 million, down 33 per cent on year ago levels. Earnings per share fell to 5.8 fils from 8 fils in 2014 More
• Jordan Islamic Bank (JIB) achieved pre-tax profits of $ 105.4 million for 2015, up almost 17 per cent on year ago levels. Net profits after tax reached $68.7 million, up eight per cent More
• Statistics have shown that the Islamic banking assets in the UAE grew to AED 445 billion at the end of the second quarter of 2015, an increase of 9.8 per cent since the start of the year; while the global Islamic banking assets were estimated at $1.3 trillion (AED 4.77 trillion) and grew at a robust rate of 16 per cent per annum. More
• Oman Telecommunications Co (Omantel) scrapped plans for a $130 million, five-year dual-currency sukuk issue because the interest rates offered by lenders were too high, the company’s chief executive said.
(EBC TV)