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Arabian Business
09-07-2025
- Business
- Arabian Business
Dubai's DIB helps arrange $1 billion sovereign financing for Pakistan
Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) has successfully completed a US$1 billion syndicated term-finance facility for the Government of Pakistan. Arranged in collaboration with a consortium of financial institutions, the five-year facility is an innovative transaction, partially guaranteed by a Policy-Based Guarantee (PBG) from the Asian Development Bank (ADB). It's the first PBG transaction of its kind undertaken by ADB for Pakistan. With Islamic tranche, structured as an AAOIFI-compliant Commodity Murabaha, making up for nearly 89 per cent of the total facility, it showed the growing demand for Shariah-based financing and supports Pakistan's objective of expanding Islamic finance. DIB leads major Pakistan funding deal DIB acted as the sole Islamic global coordinator and was the Joint Mandated Lead Arranger and Bookrunner alongside Standard Chartered. Other leading Islamic banks that participated from the region included Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Ajman Bank and Sharjah Islamic Bank. Muhammad Aurangzeb, Minister of Finance, Government of Pakistan, commented: 'This landmark financing arrangement not only underscores the strong confidence of regional and international financial institutions in Pakistan's economic reform trajectory, but also marks an important step in expanding our access to innovative and Shariah-compliant funding solutions. 'We deeply value the role of partners like DIB and ADB in supporting our efforts to ensure macroeconomic stability and sustainable growth.' Dr Adnan Chilwan, Group Chief Executive Officer, DIB, added: 'This transaction marks a key milestone in demonstrating how Sharia-compliant financing can be scaled effectively to meet sovereign objectives while upholding partnership and prudence. 'DIB is delighted to have re-introduced Pakistan's credit to the Islamic term financing market after a hiatus of over two years through an innovative structure. We are confident this will pave the way for the Government to access broader pools of Sharia-compliant liquidity in the near future.' Developed in close coordination with the Government of Pakistan, the Asian Development Bank, and leading financial institutions, the structure reflects strong alignment between market capabilities and national priorities. It offers a compelling example of how values-driven finance can support tangible, real-economy outcomes. The inclusion of an ADB PBG played a key role in facilitating Pakistan's return to the international commercial market. For Pakistan, the transaction marks a strategic re-engagement with Middle East capital markets after more than two years, demonstrating growing investor trust and a renewed appetite for collaboration through ethical and cost-effective financing solutions. Established in 1975, DIB is the largest Islamic bank in the UAE by assets. It is also the world's first full-service Islamic bank and amongst the largest Islamic banks in the world with group assets now exceeding US$95 billion and market capitalisation of more than US$14 billion. The bank has over 500 branches across the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
Zawya
02-07-2025
- Business
- Zawya
IMF may merge reviews of Egypt's program, delay $1.2bln aid disbursement
Arab Finance: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) could merge its fifth and sixth reviews of Egypt's $8 billion support program, which may delay the disbursement of $1.2 billion by half a year, Reuters reported, citing three people familiar with the matter. The possible delay is attributed to Egypt's slow progress on structural reforms, which are the main guarantee of the facility, including the divestment of state assets. Reuters noted that a delay in the fifth review would result in the program being hindered until after the summer, with the next board meeting likely in December at the earliest. On June 29th, the Egyptian parliament approved raising value-added tax (VAT), which will increase taxes on construction services, crude oil, cigarette, and alcohol. A source said that this VAT hike may trigger thr IMF staff report. In March, the IMF completed its fourth review of Egypt's economic reform program under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), unlocking access to $1.2 billion. An IMF delegation, led by Chief Mission Vladkova Hollar, visited Egypt during May and began the fifth review, but has yet to signal its approval. Holler affirmed that Egypt made substantial progress toward macroeconomic stability. On April 2nd, the Egyptian government announced it received the $1.2 billion fourth tranche from the IMF. Regarding Egypt's economic performance, the IMF, in its April's World Economic Outlook Report, raised its forecast for the country's economic growth to 3.8% for the current fiscal year (FY) 2024/2025, surpassing a previous estimate of 3.6%. © 2020-2023 Arab Finance For Information Technology. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
Forbes
23-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
China Market Update: It's The End Of The World, Hong Kong & Chinese Stocks Feel Fine
CLN Asian equities declined following the US attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, the threat of a potential counterattack, and concerns over Middle East oil transportation out of the Persian Gulf (hence the REM song reference in today's title). Despite the strength of the US dollar, Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Malaysia outperformed. A key factor in the resilience of Hong Kong and Mainland China was the start of the 12th two-and-a-half-day meeting of the 14th Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Try saying that five times fast! The meeting, attended by the upper echelons of China's government, will discuss 'further deepening economic system reform and promoting China-style modernization,' with topics including 'deepening economic system reform and promoting China's modernization,' 'promoting fertility support,' and 'promoting artificial intelligence.' Policy expectations are light, though I suspect last year's meeting set in motion the September announcements by the People's Bank of China (PBOC) and Politburo regarding real estate policy. It was hard not to notice that consumer-focused Hong Kong stocks and sub-sectors, such as automobiles, electric vehicles (EVs), hybrids, travel, hotels, and restaurants, performed well. Alibaba declined 0.81% despite integrating its online travel platform, Fliggy, and restaurant delivery service, into its core E-Commerce business, driven by strong orders. Alibaba's weakness may also have been influenced by Meituan's 2.18% gain after the company announced an expansion of its 'instant retail business,' leveraging its massive restaurant delivery network and further overseas expansion in Saudi Arabia. Another factor was the Hong Kong relisting initial public offering (IPO) of Mainland-listed Zhejiang Sanhua Intelligent Controls. While more supply in the market requires capital from somewhere, it was interesting that the IPO was down despite being heavily oversubscribed: 747 times by retail investors and 23 times by institutional investors. Premier Li signed a State Council order requiring internet platforms to submit tax-related information, but this does not appear problematic, as it focuses on tax reporting by the companies themselves. The Wall Street Journal published a nonsensical article on Wall Street's lost love affair with US listings of Chinese companies. Meanwhile, Southbound Stock Connect saw strong inflows, with Mainland investors net buying $1.005 billion. Hong Kong- and Mainland-listed semiconductor stocks had a strong day following Friday's Wall Street Journal article reporting that the US will pressure ASML and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to stop producing in China. Mega-cap banks also performed well, as the exchange-traded funds (ETFs) favored by the National Team saw strong volumes. Beverages and food stocks were down, with Kweichow Moutai off 0.61%. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the Dwarkesh Podcast interview with Arthur Kroeber of Gavekal Dragonomics. You'll learn more about China from listening to that two-and-a-half-hour episode than from a lifetime of reading about China in the Western media. I don't agree with everything, but on the big picture, I found it very insightful and aligned with my own thinking. I also enjoyed the BG2 Podcast, hosted by Altimeter's founder and CEO Brad Gerstner and Benchmark's former general partner Bill Gurley, interviewing Coatue's Laffont brothers on artificial intelligence (AI), public and venture capital markets, macroeconomics, US debt, crypto, IPOs, and more. Coatue hosted its 2024 East Meets West Conference last week, focusing on AI. The investment firm generously provides its deck for free on its website, which I recommend checking out. Yes, I had a long weekend watching my kids' sports. New Content Read our latest article: Navigating Global Crosswinds: Carbon Markets Respond to Tariff Tactics and Executive Orders Please click here to read Chart1 Chart2 Chart3 Chart4 Chart5 Chart6
