INDONESIA - INVESTMENT FUNDS - Real Estate Investment Trusts Target Indonesia Five Years After Rules

www.thejakartaglobe.com - Al-’Aqar Healthcare Real Estate Investment Trust, Malaysia’s oldest Islamic REIT, is considering opening a trust in Indonesia as the nation reviews its first application five years after legalizing such property companies.

Kuala Lumpur-based Al-’Aqar, which already owns two hospitals in Indonesia, would look at registering a trust in the Southeast Asian country provided it gets tax incentives and clearer rules on foreigners owning land are implemented, Executive Director Yusaini Sidek said by e-mail yesterday.  (source)

INDONESIA - INVESTMENT FUND - Al-’Aqar mulls opening trust in Indonesia

www.btimes.com.my - Al-’Aqar Healthcare Real Estate Investment Trust, Malaysia’s oldest Islamic REIT, is considering opening a trust in Indonesia as the nation reviews its first application five years after legalizing such property companies.

Kuala Lumpur-based Al-’Aqar, which already owns two hospitals in Indonesia, would look at registering a trust in the Southeast Asian country provided it gets tax incentives and clearer rules on foreigners owning land are implemented, Executive Director Yusaini Sidek said by e-mail yesterday.(source)

SINGAPORE - Sabana REIT, Khazanah sukuk to jumpstart Singapore sharia finance

SINGAPORE - More Singapore companies are keen to raise Islamic financing after a landmark sharia REIT and local currency sukuk from Malaysia's Khazanah Nasional stirred the city-state's interest in wholesale Islamic banking, OCBC Al-Amin said on Thursday. (source)

MALAYSIA - Potential in Islamic REIT

DH Flinders Ltd, a specialist Asia-Pacific corporate advisory practice that focuses on real estate, financial services and small capital sectors, sees good investment opportunities in Islamic real estate investment trust (REIT) in Malaysia.

Executive director Stephen Hawkins says Malaysia already has a good start in terms of Islamic REIT awareness, having established the guidelines for this type of investment. (source)

SINGAPORE - Islamic Bank of Asia focus on Gulf investors

The Islamic Bank of Asia, which is backed by Southeast Asia's top bank DBS, will focus on courting Gulf wealth and growing Islamic bonds, private equity and REIT deals to drive its business, its chief executive said.
The lender has struggled to compete against other Islamic banks in the region since its establishment in 2007 due to tough market conditions in the Middle East and a lack of interest in sharia banking in Singapore.

Toby O'Connor, Islamic Bank of Asia's chief executive, said the lender would be a channel for Middle Eastern investors seeking exposure to Asia.

'A lot of the GCC countries where we're primarily focused do not have large populations, with the exception of Saudi,' said O'Connor, who joined the Singapore bank last month after 19 years at JP Morgan. (source)

SINGAPORE - Singapore eyes big role in Islamic finance

Is the so-called impressive growth of Islamic finance in Asia more to do with hype than reality? Leaving aside the core markets of Malaysia and perhaps Brunei, where most of the recent developments in Islamic banking have been confined, nothing much is happening in the rest of Asia. At best it is work in progress with governments and regulators either consulting or reviewing existing legislation to see how best tax neutrality and other measures can be introduced for the facilitation of Islamic financial products.

SINGAPORE - Singapore to Draw Islamic Investments With Sabana, HSBC Says

Singapore will attract more Islamic investments from the Middle East following the share sale of Sabana Shari’ah Compliant Industrial REIT, the world’s largest Islamic property trust, HSBC Holdings Plc said.

Sabana raised as much as S$664.4 million ($503 million) in the sale. The 458 million shares offered, which exclude reserved stock or those for key investors, were 2.5 times subscribed, the trust said in a statement yesterday. The shares for retail investors drew 12 times more demand, said Rafe Haneef, managing director of global markets for HSBC Amanah, the Shariah-compliant unit of Europe’s largest bank.