Malaysian Rating Corporation (MARC) has affirmed its MARC-1IS/AA-IS ratings on UEM Sunrise’s Islamic Commercial Papers and Islamic Medium-Term Notes programmes (ICP/IMTN-1 and ICP/IMTN-2) with a Stable Outlook. Each ICP/IMTN programme has a limit of MYR 2 billion, with a MYR 500 million sublimit on the ICP issuances.  Malaysian-based UEM Sunrise has a good track record as a property developer, with large unbilled sales as well as a sizeable landbank remaining key drivers of the rating. However, the rating is constrained by the challengi...

Indonesia’s West Sumatra Regional Development Bank (Bank Nagari) has paid off the principal and interest of its Sukuk Mudharabah II Year 2015 (Sukuk Mudharabah) and Senior Bonds VII Year 2015 (Senior Bonds) amounting to IDR 616.44 billion, according to local media reports.  Sania Putra, Finance Director of Bank Nagari stated that the bank’s Sukuk Mudharabah and Senior Bonds repayment information had been submitted to the Indonesian Financial Services Authority (OJK).  According to local media r...

Pakistan-based Bank of Punjab (BOP) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Akhuwat Islamic Microfinance (AIM) to provide financing to applicants referred by AIM under the country’s Prime Minister’s Kamyab Jawan Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme, according to local media reports.  The MoU was signed by Zafar Masud, President/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of BOP and Dr Muhammad Amjad Saqib, Founder and CEO, AIM, in the presence of Usman Dar, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Youth Affairs.  Under the collaboration, su...

Indonesia’s foreign exchange (forex) reserves reached a second-highest annual level of USD 135.9 billion in December 2020, due to tax collection and government borrowing, according to a statement from Bank Indonesia (BI) issued on the 8th of January 2021.  The figure was an increase of USD 2.3 billion from USD 133.6 billion recorded in November 2020, and was only superseded by the record high forex reserves reported in August 2020, which reached USD 137.0 billion, as reported by local media.  The December 2020 reserves level...

Amidst growing concerns of a second strict lockdown in Malaysia, the European-Malaysia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (EuroCham Malaysia) has expressed concerns of a possible collapse of the Malaysian economy given that the states most affected by COVID-19 comprised the commercial and industrial hubs of the country, and that a lockdown would result in the closure of ‘many businesses’.EuroCham Malaysia’s Chief Executive Officer, Sven Schneider, stated that EuroCham Malaysia was supportive of the Government of Malaysia’s decision to deal with the t...

S&P Global Ratings (S&P) and Moody’s Investor Service (Moody’s) have both concluded that the re-opening of borders between Qatar and its neighbouring Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) counterparts, will have limited impact in terms of government revenue and fiscal performance. Moody’s states that Qatar’s financial system could benefit from the return of lenders and depositors, with the normalisation of relations generating inflows of deposits and supporting cross-border lending across the GCC. Accor...

The financial support packages released to assist Malaysia’s COVID-19 recovery have contributed to Malaysia’s largest national budget at MYR 322.5 billion for 2021. Malaysian Prime Minister, Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz has stated that this is part of a clear and well thought through strategy for fiscal consolidation to achieve a deficit of less than 4% under the Government of Malaysia’s Medium-Term Fiscal Framework.  Under this Framework, Tengku Zafrul noted the use of a multi-prong strategy to boost revenue, which includes reg...

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