Thursday bullets

• The first Sukuk ALim was issued by Cagamas for RM1 billion ($317 million) with a yield of 3.48% and a three-year tenor. 43% of the issuance was subscribed by overseas investors including one-third from the Gulf. The structure was jointly created with the Malaysian unit of Al Rajhi Bank to conform to both Malaysian and GCC Shari'ah-compliance standards. It was 2.7 times oversubscribed.
  
• An article in Reuters discusses the push to close the gap between Malaysia and the GCC in Islamic finance.
  
• Sukuk yields have continued to fall in the face of uncertainty about the global economy, with yields falling to lower levels in Malaysia versus the GCC.
  
• Afghanistan is planning to issue Islamic banking licenses for three Islamic banks, the first in the country.
  
• Gulf Finance House said it had recorded a net loss in the first half of 2010 of $47.7 million compared to $92.1 million in the same period during 2009. Reuters calculated that the second quarter net loss was $39.9 million compared with a loss of $54.4 million in the second quarter of 2009. As part of its restructuring plan it reduced its assets from $2.7 billion at the end of 2009Q2 to $1.4 billion at the end of 2010Q2.
  
• Barclays Capital began offering Islamic repos during the past couple weeks. The structure was not discussed in the Bloomberg article.
  
• The Islamic Bank of Britain's shareholders approved the capital injection from Qatar International Islamic Bank of GBP20 million ($31 million).
  
• Kuveyt Turk issued a $100 million, 3-year sukuk, the first in the country. The government issued "revenue-indexed bonds" that are similar to sukuk in early 2009.
  
• A fund manager in Guernsey, Argyll Investment Services, launched its World Shariah Funds PCC Ltd.
  
• Indonesia delayed its sovereign sukuk for up to $650 million until 2011 because of lower budget deficits. The country's central bank is reviewing whether to approve changes to rules that would allow Islamic banks to restructure loans that are current. Current rules restrict restructuring to loans that are non-performing.
  
• The chairman of the World Islamic Economic Forum Foundation, Musa Hitam, was on a global version of CNBC (video) talking about where Islamic finance stands today.
  
• A conference on Islamic finance in Jeddah will suggest that there be a database of "permanent fatwas". Presumably, this would include fatawa on the most common Islamic finance structures.