Monday, March 12, 2007

RHB, KFH & EPF, Saudi takaful market, IIFF conference in Dubai and book review

EPF to sell part of RHB Capital

Malaysian state-run pension fund, Employees Provident Fund (EPF), will sell around 35 percent of RHB Capital but will keep its holdings in Rashid Hussain Bhd. The chief executive of the EPF Azlan Zainol, said 'hopefully' the EPF can work together with Kuwait Finance House (KFH) although 'for the time being', the EPF did not plan to sell a stake of RHB Capital to KFH. The managing director of KFH, Salman Younis, said they want to have equity participation in RHB Capital "should the EPF see synergies in partnering with KFH".

Anwar Ibrahim to speak at the Dubai IIFF

Former deputy prime minister of Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim, will speak at the International Islamic Finance Forum (IIFF) Dubai 2007 on expanding the process of assessing Shari'ah-compliance to include equity and distributive justice of Islamic financial products. The conference will be held April 2-5, 2007 in Dubai and is listed on the IHI conference listings.

Takaful grows in Saudi Arabia

The takaful market in Saudi Arabia will grow significantly with the opening of the market for takaful providers and the appointment of a Shari'ah Advisory Committee by the National Company for Cooperative Insurance (NCCI). Furthermore, AXA Group, the French insurance company, plans to enter the takaful market within the next year including the Saudi market.

Book review

The Hindu Business Times has a review of An Introduction to Islamic Finance: Theory and Practice by Zamir Iqbal and Abbas Mirakhor.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

In September I would have speculated that MS would not be treating a first-tier Orange COunty investment criteria firm like Blackstone this way. But as the Fall has progressed and the potential liability increased it is clear that banks are willing to risk even their largest clients to wriggle away from some of these deals.