Do Local and Global Factors Impact the Emerging Markets’s Sovereign Yield Curves? Evidence from a Data-Rich Environment

The United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) Dar Al Takaful is currently in negotiations with Noor Investment Group (UAE) and Noor Bank (UAE) to undertake a 100% acquisition of both Noor Takaful General (NTG) and Noor Takaful Family (NTF).  The transaction which is pending shareholder and regulatory approval, and is expected to be finalised by mid-2020. Following the acquisition, both NTG and NTF will continue their business activities as is, without any significant changes. Once complete, the tran...

TG Excellence Bhd, a fully-owned subsidiary of Top Glove Corporation Bhd, is set to raise MYR 1.3 billion from its perpetual Sukuk issuance, which has been assigned an AA- rating by Malaysian Rating Corporation Bhd. The perpetual Sukuk has no legal maturity date, and the company has the option to redeem it five years from the date of issue, or at bi-annual intervals thereafter.  The initial yield on the Sukuk was 3.95% per annum, representing the lowest yield ever achieved for a corporate perpetual transaction in the Malaysian Market. The comp...

Home to approximately 8.0% of the global Muslim population, Bangladesh has long had a strong domestic demand for Islamic banking and finance services. The country currently has 10 fully-fledged Islamic banks, 19 Islamic banking branches belonging to nine conventional banks, and 41 Islamic banking windows of seven conventional banks.Data from the Bangladesh Central Bank indicates that collectively, these operations accounted for 1,301 branches of Islamic finance/banking services across the country, as at the end of September 2019, compared to 1,200 at the end of September 2018.The Shariah-c...

The Islamic Economy (the Economy) consists of Muslim-majority countries that have economic and financial sectors complying with Shariah law.Data from the ‘State of the Global Islamic Economy Report 2019/20’, indicates that the economy was worth USD 2.2 trillion (in terms of consumer spending) in 2018, and is projected to reach USD 3.2 trillion by 2024, representing an annual increase of 6.2% (CAGR) over the period.While Malaysia dominates the Economy, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been showing strong growth potential, ranking first in five of the seven key sectors that mak...

The South Jakarta Tourism and Creative Economy Agency (the Agency), who introduced halal tourism, announced plans for further development of the concept, to tap into the potential offered by Indonesia’s halal tourism sector.The Agency targets 1 million tourists in 2020,  which compares to a total of 2.4 million tourists to Jakarta in 2019 according to data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS).Mastercard-Crescent Rating, a research agency tracking the halal travel industry, expects the global halal tourism to reach USD 300 billion over the next decade, from USD 180 billion in 2018, driven...

Islamic banks’ financing in Malaysia grew 8.3% YoY in 2019, significantly outperforming the 1.6% loan growth of conventional banks in the same period, according to Fitch Ratings. The share of Islamic financing to total banking system loans increased to 35% in 2019 compared to 27% in 2015.Fitch expects COVID-19 to have a similar impact on the asset quality of both Malaysia’s Islamic banks as well as the country’s conventional banks, given a comparable financing mix.While the virus outbreak poses some level of downside risk to growth and asset quality across all banks in Ma...

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) has reported it will be closing down branches and cutting jobs at some of its local and international branches, across the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran and the UK.  This move comes as part of a series of cost-cutting strategies, which is expected to bring in savings of AED 500 million. Macro-economic factors likely to have influenced this strategy include intensifying competition in the banking industry, as well as tough conditions within the UAE economy.  The UAE is facing the heat fro...

Malaysia’s largest Islamic bank, Maybank Islamic Berhad (MIB) opened its first overseas branch in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), after having been granted the full Islamic banking licence from the Dubai Financial Services Authority in July 2019.  MIB’s Maybank Islamic’s Dubai operation will start small and focus on wholesale banking, emphasising on corporate finance, treasury, capital markets and trade finance.  The bank will cater to customers in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE for now. MIB’s C...

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has structured a ‘Commodity Murabaha’ financing facility for the Al Batterjia Medical SAE, marking the first time that the EBRD has used such a facility.  The funds will be used to develop greenfield general hospitals in Egypt and Morocco, with the aim of improving the standard and quality of hospital services in these countries.  These new facilities will carry internationally recognised certifications, which is very rare in Egypt and Morocco.&...