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’Remember that other sovereign crisis?
It seems there’s been some further developments in the sorry saga of the Palm Island state on Thursday.
According to Reuters sources, Dubai Group — a unit of the Dubai Holdings conglomerate owned by Dubai,
Dubai repays $980m Nakheel bond on time
Finally, some good news:
May 13 (Reuters) – Dubai repaid a $980 million Islamic bond issued by developer Nakheel while another state-owned firm said it was confident of refinancing an upcoming loan as it digs out from a massive debt burden.
Sharia compliant hedging is finally, actually here
An interesting and unexpected email landed in the FT Alphaville inbox on Monday: ‘IIFM and ISDA Launch Tahawwut (Hedging) Master Agreement.’
This is an important — and long awaited — development in both the OTC derivatives market and Islamic finance more broadly.
Introducing Ta’Hawwut. Maybe.
Practitioners of Islamic finance will soon be able to refer to the first-ever standard template for an OTC, Sharia-compliant derivative, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
Simon Eedle, MD for Islamic Banking at Credit Agricole CIB,
S&P’s impeccable timing, Islamic finance edition
The world of Islamic finance has been roiled by the upheavals in Dubai: questions abound over such matters as the structuring of al-ijarah sukuk like the $3.5bn bond issued by Nakheel, Dubai World’s real estate development subsidiary.
The issue of shariah compliance and the Nakheel sukuk
When is a sukuk not a sukuk?
When it fails to be shariah compliant, of course.
And the key issues, it seems, that may or may not make a sukuk shariah-compliant relate to principal protection and the bondholder’s unsecured status.
Sharia-compliant derivatives – a contradiction in terms?
Reuters is running an interesting story on Islamic banks’ struggles to develop hedging tools to cope with market volatility.
Not all Islamic scholars believe the use of derivatives is permitted by Sharia law – which leaves more conservative institutions with “few instruments to guard against wild swings in currency and interest rate movements,”