Indonesia's National Islamic Finance Committee (KNEKS) officially designated Modern Halal Valley in Cikande, Banten, as its first Halal Industrial Zone in early September 2020, in a strategic move to improve the country’s position as a Halal producer, according to local media reports. Director of Shariah Economic Development and Halal Industry of KNEKS, Afdhal Aliasar stated that the designation, which followed a conformity verification process set up by the Ministry of Industry, Halal Product Guarantee Agency (BPJPH) and the Indon...

Pemeringkat Efek Indonesia (Pefindo) has reaffirmed the AAA rating of Indosat’s  Sustainable Sukuk Ijarah II Phase II Year 2017 Series B (Sukuk Ijarah) worth IDR 260 billion, in an official statement recently.  According to IslamicMarkets Sukuk Monitor, the Sukuk Ijarah of the Indonesian telecommunications provider has a coupon rate of 7.45% and is set to mature on the 9th of November 2020. Proceeds of the Sukuk will be used to pay annual radio frequency spectrum to the Indonesian government for the us...

RAM Ratings (RAM) has reaffirmed the ratings of Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad’s (MAHB or the Group) MYR 2.5 billion Senior Sukuk Programme (2013/2033) (the Senior Sukuk) and MYR 2.5 billion Perpetual Subordinated Sukuk Programme (2014/2114) (the Perpetual Sukuk) as AAA/Stable and AA2/Stable respectively.  The reaffirmation of the Senior Sukuk reflects the Group’s credit profile, with the Sukuk ranking pari passu with its senior unsecured borrowings, while the Perpetual Sukuk ratings, which were tw...

United Arab Emirate-based energy producer, Dana Gas, is currently negotiating details of the sale of its Egyptian assets with a US firm, IPR Energy, according to media reports.  The negotiations are taking place ahead of Dana Gas’ repayment of debt scheduled for October 2020.  The Emirati company, whose main assets are in Egypt and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, was aiming to raise over USD 500 million from the sale. However, according to local media reports, the sale will likely yield much lower than the expected amount...

Swift Haulage Sdn Bhd (Swift Group), a Malaysian-based integrated logistics services provider, has arranged a MYR 500 million unrated Sukuk programme, in addition to securing MYR 231 million in working capital financing facilities, according to local media reports.  The logistics provider has secured MYR 531 million in financing, comprising MYR 300 million of the first tranche from its unrated Sukuk programme, as well as MYR 231 million in working capital facilities from AmBank Islamic, OCBC A...

Egypt reported a trade deficit of USD 3.30 billion in June 2020, down 8.6% year-on-year (YoY) from USD 3.61 billion in the same period last year, according to the country’s official statistics agency, the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).  Egypt’s exports declined 7.9% YoY to USD 2.26 billion during June 2020, compared to USD 2.45 billion in June 2019, with the decrease attributed to the falling value of commodities including crude oil (-46.3% YoY), fresh fruits (-10.5% YoY), plastics in primary forms (-10.4% YoY) and re...

Indonesia's foreign exchange (forex) reserves reached a record high of USD 137.0 billion in August 2020, due to government borrowing, tax collection and oil and gas revenue, Bank Indonesia announced.  The figure superseded the previous record of USD 135.1 billion reported in July 2020 and is expected to allow the country to pay back foreign debt and nine months’ worth of imports. Bank Indonesia said in a statement that it sees the current forex levels as adequate for external and internal financial stability, while the Government of Ind...

The rehabilitation of Marawi City in the Philippines can be supported through the establishment of Islamic financing units that have Shariah-compliant mechanisms, which would provide additional or alternative sources of funding for projects and programs, according to Arifa A. Ala,  Managing Director of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the Central Bank of the Philippines. In an email interview, Ala asserted that projects such as public infrastructure, business development, housing, social services and peacebuilding can be fina...

A growing demand for Shariah-compliant investments has underpinned the strong performance of asset managers in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) markets to attract foreign capital, according to a report released by Moody’s Investor Service (Moody’s).  As GCC markets are encouraging foreign equity ownership and opening to foreign markets,  Moody’s asserts that local asset managers are likely to make use of their expertise in the region to attract foreign clients, adding that the increased demand for Shariah investments had allowed the GCC asset manager secto...

Fitch Ratings (Fitch) has downgraded the Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) of the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) to ‘A+’ from ‘AA-‘, with a Negative Outlook. In addition, Fitch has downgraded ICDPS Sukuk Limited’s (formerly known as Hilal Services) medium-term note (MTN) programme to ‘A+’ from ‘AA-‘.  The downgrade of the IDR reflects Fitch’s downward revision of ICD’s intrinsic rating to ‘bbb+’ from ‘a-&lsquo...