Welcome to the first Reuters Publishing Islamic special report – produced by journalists from IFR, PFI, Acquisition Monthly and IFR Securitisation Report. This is a truly global effort to capture the up-to-date picture of one of the world's most important capital markets, in detail. The report is introduced by Rushdi Siddiqui, Global Head of Islamic Finance across the Reuters network. In an important thought-leading piece, he argues: "For Islamic finance to become a global phenomenon and a viabl

Project finance involves providing debt for significant capital expenditure schemes, usually in the energy and infrastructure spheres. Unlike other asset classes in the capital markets, it is genuinely asset-backed – the debt is serviced solely from the cashflows of the project, a physical asset. As such, marrying project finance with Islamic finance, which relies on real assets too, should be a natural. There are differences, of course. Project finance is traditional debt, for a start, while Is

The Great Financial Crisis continues, and the academic camps remain split between those who think the world will go through a "U" shaped recession and those who think it faces the infamous double-dip "W". The Middle East has not been completely immune, leading to an assumption in some circles that Sharia-compliant funding – whether in the form of sukuk securities or loans – would somehow just magically appear from the great financial centres of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain to fill the acquisition fi

Indonesia has gone down two routes towards establishing itself in the Islamic finance sector: it has begun putting in place the regulatory framework for Islamic capital markets; and the sovereign has begun issuing sukuk to increase its Islamic credentials and its profile among Islamic investors. As the world's largest Islamic country, Indonesia naturally has high ambitions in the Islamic space but until very recently almost all of the government's efforts have been about developing its conventio

The increasing number of corporate defaults, real estate devaluation, credit contraction, et cetera have all contributed to market woes in the GCC. Some of the previously overlooked legal opinions are being referred to and insolvency and bankruptcy laws are being deliberated upon. However, it is not just a busy time for lawyers and restructuring bankers, regulators and government officials are conjured on the possibility of losing credibility for future foreign investment should the decisions be

That choice surprised no one. Malaysia has dominated the global sukuk market, accounting for the bulk of sukuk issues in the world. According to a Standard & Poor's report, Malaysia accounted for about 45% of all sukuk issues, totalling US$9.3bn, in the first seven months of 2009. Although this was a 16% drop from the US$11.1bn sold in the corresponding period in 2008, the top market was still in Malaysia. Saudi Arabia was a distant second, accounting for 22% of total issuance. Islamic finance r

However, other major financial centres are not far behind, with a few preparing necessary legislation amendments to allow Sharia-compliant financing in their respective jurisdictions. The Islamic finance industry is already active in more than 50 countries worldwide and is expanding further. The annual growth of the sector is estimated at 15% with the majority of sukuk supply often sold to non-Muslim investors in the West. The French parliament passed legislation on September 17 this year to mak

Since Dow Jones launched its first Islamic equity index in 1999, a plethora of index products aimed at institutions managing money in accordance with Sharia principles have been launched. Dow Jones and the main index providers, such as the FTSE Group, MSCI Barra and S&P, between them offer hundreds of indices allowing investment institutions to track Sharia-compliant companies according to region, country, industry and market capitalisation. Many other institutions, including investment banks, a

The reopening of the sukuk market in the past six months has been a major positive for all concerned. While sukuk issuance was at a premium for most of the opening months of 2008, the collapse into full financial crisis in the last quarter firmly bolted the door on any kind of fundraising – either conventional or Sharia-compliant. Therefore, with the bank market remaining impervious to all but the most determined borrower, the return of the bond market has meant that capital has still been avail

The blueprint of the embryonic Islamic Finance phenomenon has been risk-averse, short-term, and liquidity oriented, hence a reliance on murabaha and Sharia compliance. You could say that at one level, its youth and risk-averseness prevented an Islamic "credit crisis". There are 57 Muslim countries with a combined GDP of US$4.7trn and 24% (or 1.6bn) of the world's population. However, has Islamic finance provided investment benefits to the "man on the (African) street?" I've been involved in Isla