Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Citigroup in Singapore, Deutsche Bank offers Islamic mutual funds, Gulf Finance House in India & China

Gulf-based Islamic finance moves to India and China

"Gulf Finance House eyes to invest in India and China", Arab Times, December 6, 2006

Gulf Finance House, the Bahrain-based Islamic bank, has announced plans to invest at least US$1 billion in China next year and significantly expand the amount invested in India (currently around US$2 billion). The bank invests primarily in infrastructure projects and has made investments in Jordan and Morocco. .

Citigroup in Singapore

"New Islamic investment products expected to attract more Middle Eastern funds", Channel NewsAsia, December 6, 2006

Citigroup has established Islamic operations in Singapore. The products will be based on commodity transactions and will be 'Islamic equivalents' of interest-rate swaps, cross-currency swaps and foreign exchange forwards, all based on murabaha, the cost-plus sale used in "70 percent of Islamic short- and medium-term money market transactions in the Middle East".

"Foreign Islamic bond issuers eye Singapore-Citigroup", Reuters via Yahoo! NewsAsia, December 6, 2006

Citigroup has announced that they plan to issue sukuk in Singapore where there have been very few Islamic products offered, particularly compared to neighboring Malaysia, where 75 percent of all bond issues are suuk.

Deutsche Bank offers Shari'ah-compliant global mutual funds

"Deutsche Bank launches Shari'a mutual fund capability", AMEinfo, December 6, 2006

Deutsche Bank announced the creation of several global Shari'ah-compliant mutual funds, the DWS Noor Islamic Funds. The first five announced are DWS Noor Precious Metals Securities Fund, DWS Noor Global Select Equity, DWS Noor China Equity Fund, DWS Noor Japan Equity Fund and DWS Noor Asia Pacific Equity Fund. The Shari'ah-compliance was monitored by the Deutsche Bank-financed Dar al Istitmar.

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