Tag Archives: dubai
India Shariah Market Tested With Property Funds
Taqwaa Advisory is setting up a Rs. 250 crore real estate fund to give Indian muslims a Shariah investment option Liau Y-Sing Yudith Ho A file photo of BSE. India has two Shariah equity funds and BSE introduced a new Islamic share index on 2 May. Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint Taqwaa Advisory and Shariah Investment Solutions Pvt. Ltd, a Mumbai-based consultancy, is setting up the Rs. 250 crore fund on behalf of a company backed by the Kerala government, director Shariq Nisar said in an interview on Wednesday. Secura Investment Management (India) Pvt. Ltd manages the country’s only other such real estate vehicle. India has two Shariah equity funds and BSE Ltd, the stock exchange operator, introduced a new Islamic share index on 2 May. “Islamic finance is in a nascent stage in India and definitely any new product will create more awareness and opportunity,” Taqwaa’s Nisar said. “There’s a lack of awareness and interest, which will take some time to be removed.” In 2008, a 13-member panel of experts led by Raghuram Rajan , a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund and now the top adviser in India’s finance ministry, recommended that the country allow banking that complies with Islam’s ban on interest. The government did not take any action, and central bank governor D. Subbarao said this month that Shariah-compliant banking is inconsistent with the nation’s laws. Political barrier India’s 10-year sovereign bonds yield 7.15%, well ahead of 5.97% in Indonesia, the next highest in the region, data compiled by Bloomberg show. “The challenge is that every time India tries to offer Islamic banking, the tendency is to politicize this product,” Raj Mohamad, managing director at consulting company Five Pillars Pte, said in an interview from Singapore on Wednesday. “India should look at non-traditional Islamic finance markets and see how they have done it.” Stock funds Internationally, an increasing amount of Shariah-compliant financial assets has buoyed demand for sukuk, with worldwide sales reaching a record $46.5 billion last year. Issuance has risen 7% so far in 2013 to $18 billion, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The average yield on Islamic debt rose 10 basis points, or 0.1 percentage point, to 3.38% on Wednesday, the HSBC/Nasdaq Dubai US Dollar Sukuk Index shows. Borrowing costs have climbed 57 basis points this year, after reaching a record low of 2.67% in January. The yield premium over the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, widened five basis points to 181. Some 13% of India’s 1.2 billion people are Muslim, according to the CIA World Factbook, the third-biggest population behind Indonesia and Pakistan. Those two countries have 209.6 trillion rupiah and 837 billion Pakistani rupees of Islamic banking assets, the latest central bank data show. In Malaysia, a global pioneer in Shariah-compliant finance, holdings total 399 billion ringgit. Bloomberg Continue reading
Michel Salgado to speak at Dubai event
Former Real Madrid and Spain star Michel Salgado will be one of the guest speakers at the Dubai International Football Academies Forum this weekend (June 1st and 2nd).The ex-fullback – who ended his illustrious career in the 2011/12 season while playing for Blackburn Rovers – will be joined by Uefa official Ioan Lupescu and Fifa representative Jean Michel Benezet on the opening day of the event.They will talk about how both football governing bodies plan to boost the development of young players in the future.Although the UAE is not renowned for being a footballing hotbed, the game is undoubtedly becoming more popular in this part of the world.Salgado, aged 37, has been living in Dubai for a few months and he is certainly well placed to offer advice on how the game should be played.The rightback amassed 53 caps for Spain between 1998 and 2006 and won a plethora of trophies throughout his career, particularly during his stint at Real Madrid.Indeed, Salgado lifted the La Liga title four times and he also won the Spanish Cup on three occasions. In addition to this, the dependable defender scooped the Uefa Champions League trophy in 2000 and 2002.This is the second time the Dubai International Football Academies Forum is being held and Salgado is not the only famous face being lined up to appear at the event.Argentine legend Diego Maradona – who is currently working as an ambassador for the Dubai Sports Council – will talk about how to succeed in football, while ex-England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson will also be on hand to tell the audience just how important it is to get the basics of the sport right.Eriksson has had a glittering managerial career to date and the Swede has landed numerous honours – most notably with Italian club Lazio in the late 1990s/early 2000s. He is now employed as a technical director at UAE-based club Al Nasr. Continue reading
Bag your art
Bag your art Staff Reporter (news@khaleejtimes.com) / 30 May 2013 Fancy a painting to match your handbag? A new exhibition, claiming to be the first-of-its-kind in Dubai to showcase art-as-fashion, is opening next month. Pro Art Gallery will be showcasing the collaboration of the works of Hong Kong-based handbag designer, Piecco Pang (PP4E) and New York-based painter Antoinette Wysocki for a month, kick-starting June 5. The exhibition, entitled ‘Full Spectrum’, will present and sell paintings and handbags of the same print. Pang first met Wysocki at her art opening in Hong Kong, where they formed a strong creative connection, and decided to collaborate on a series of limited edition handbags, designed by Pang and featuring abstract paintings by Wysocki, which combines their passion for fashion, function and art. Curator Nabil Sammer said this was something new for Dubai art and fashion fans and collectors to see. “It is happening more and more around the world (but) it’s something that hasn’t been done before here, so it’s special to see. “(And) fashion here in Dubai interests a lot of people. It’s also interesting to see the fashion and artwork of other regions coming here.” The paintings and bags were intended to be sold together, he said. There are about 25 paintings and bags on display, with prices ranging from Dh25,000 to Dh60,000. Each bag is signed by both artists. Gallery owner and founder Tatiana Faure said this was the first time the gallery, based in Jumeriah’s Palm Strip Shopping Mall on Beach Road, had showcased such a combination of not only great artists, but two diverse art forms. “The collections are set to make a huge mark in the art world in the UAE and we foresee a tremendous amount of interest in this unique exhibition,” Faure said. The collection represented a growing trend around the world, of collaborations between luxury firms and artists such as the corporate Vuitton/Yayoi Kusama collaboration a few months ago, she said. “Art has even inspired Art fashion: Yves Saint Laurent had that Mondrian Collection, Elsa Schiaparelli worked with Salvador Dali.… Everybody remembers the Vuitton/Takashi Murakami collaboration.” Wysocki is an expressionistic painter who employs mixed media on organic materials, including canvas and rag. She has shown internationally, including in London, Hong Kong and New York. She works with multiple layers, beginning with gestures and washes and moving to controlled brush strokes with more detail. Meanwhile, self-proclaimed perfectionist Pang began designing and creating clutch bags for a close group of personal friends while working as a private banker. He has now become one of Hong Kong’s top bespoke clutch designers, and sells his bags in Paris, London, Milan, Berlin and Dubai Mall. Continue reading
