SINGAPORE - FINANCE - Sabana Reit to buy Serangoon North property for $61m

www.businesstimes.com.sg  -Sabana Shari'ah Compliant Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust plans to acquire a Serangoon North Ave 5 property for $61 million.

Its manager, Sabana Real Estate Investment Management Pte Ltd, said on Wednesday that its trustee, HSBC Institutional Trust Services (Singapore) Limited, has entered into a sale and purchase agreement with Ban Teck Han Enterprise Co Pte Ltd for the purpose-built five storey light industrial building with a mezzanine level.  (source)

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)

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)

SINGAPORE - OCBC expanding Islamic banking arm

OCBC is set to grow its Islamic banking business at a gradual but steady pace, as demand for syariah-compliant financing rises among retail and corporate customers.

OCBC Al-Amin, the bank's Malaysia-based Islamic banking unit, saw loans grow by 16 per cent last year, chief executive Syed Abdull Aziz Syed Kechik told The Straits Times. (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.