BANKING - Albaraka Turk Plans to Raise as Much as $750 Million in 2012

www.bloomberg.com - Albaraka Turk Katilim Bankasi AS (ALBRK), the Turkish unit of Bahrain’s AlBaraka Banking Group (BARKA), plans to raise as much as $750 million through syndicated financing and an Islamic bond sale this year, the group chief executive said.
The bank may raise between $400 million and $500 million from a so-called syndicated murabaha facility next week, CEO Adnan Yousif said in a telephone interview late yesterday from Alexandria, Egypt. The financing will mostly be in dollars, with some in euros, he said. The bank also plans to raise as much as $250 million from the sale of 7-year Islamic bonds this year. (source)

BANKING - Turkiye Finans Will Grow 25 Percent in 2012, Aksam Reports

www.bloomberg.com - Turkiye Finans Katilim Bankası AS, a Turkish bank that operates according to Islamic rules barring interest, will grow 25 percent this year, Aksam reported, citing Chief Executive Officer Derya Gurerk.
The shareholders are committed to increasing the bank’s capital to achieve a capital adequacy ratio that will support this rate of growth, Gurerk said, according to the newspaper.
National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia owns 64.7 percent of Turkiye Finans, Turkish Boydak Group 21.6 percent and Yildiz Group 13.7 percent.  (source)

BANKING - Kuwait Finance House’s Turkish Unit Increases Profit 18%

www.businessweek.com - Kuwait Finance House KSC (KFIN) said first- quarter profit at its Turkish unit, Kuveyt Turk Katalim Bankasi AS, rose 18 percent from a year earlier to 87 million lira ($47 million). The Istanbul-based bank opened 25 new branches during the period, bringing the total to 183, the lender said today in an e-mailed statement. (source)

CAPITAL MARKETS - Bank Asya Drops to 4-Month Low as FinansInvest Cuts Rating

www.bloomberg.com - Asya Katilim Bankasi AS (ASYAB), a Turkish Islamic bank, fell the lowest level in almost four months as FinansInvest downgraded the stock on concern the bank’s “problematic” loans will increase.
The shares dropped 3.5 percent to 1.64 liras at the close in Istanbul, the lowest since Jan. 23. The benchmark ISE National 100 Index sank 1.3 percent and the gauge for the banking industry slipped 2.9 percent.
Bank Asya’s recommendation was cut to neutral from outperform and its 12-month price estimate was lowered to 2.20 liras from 2.31 liras at FinansInvest, the Istanbul-based brokerage of Finansbank AS, the Turkish lender owned by National Bank of Greece. (source)

CAPITAL MARKETS - Turkey Stocks: Asya Katilim, Otokar, Vestel Elektronik Move

www.bloomberg.com - Turkey’s benchmark ISE National 100 Index (XU100) fell 1.7 percent to 57,853.86 at the close in Istanbul, declining for the first time in three days. The following shares were active. Stock symbols are in parentheses.

Asya Katilim Bankasi AS (ASYAB) , an Islamic bank, slid 5.1 percent to 1.69 liras, its biggest loss since Nov. 21. The bank is waiting for “the right market conditions” to issue $300 million of sukuk bonds as “unfortunately things are not good abroad,” Chief Executive Abdullah Celik said in an interview today. (source)

CAPITAL MARKETS - Albaraka Turk Falls After First-Quarter Profit Misses Estimates

www.bloomberg.com - Albaraka Turk Katilim Bankasi AS (ALBRK), a Turkish Islamic bank, fell after its first-quarter profit trailed estimates.
The shares dropped 3.1 percent to 1.87 liras at 10:58 a.m. in Istanbul.
Albaraka reported a net income of 39.2 million liras ($22 million), according to a statement to the Istanbul Stock Exchange on Friday, lagging the 51.2 million liras average forecast by six analysts on Bloomberg. The bank earned 41.2 million liras in the first quarter of last year. (source)

BANKING - Albaraka Turk Gains After Dunya Report of Gulf, Balkan Expansion

www.businessweek.com - Albaraka Turk Katilim Bankasi AS (ALBRK), a Turkish Islamic bank, climbed after Dunya reported it would expand into the Middle East and Balkans, citing Chief Executive Officer Fahrettin Yahsi.

The shares added 1.6 percent to 1.96 liras at 11:25 a.m. in Istanbul, heading for their highest on a closing basis in three weeks. Shares on the overall banking index fell 0.3 percent to 116,770.2.  (source)

BANKING - Bank Asya Expects to Double Gold Deposits, Haberturk Reports

www.bloomberg.com - Asya Katilim Bankasi AS (ASYAB), an Istanbul-based Islamic bank, expects its gold deposit accounts to double by the end of this year, Haberturk newspaper reported, citing Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Celik.

The bank, also known as Bank Asya, currently has 1 ton of gold stored in such accounts and plans to pay a profit-share to attract more customers, Celik said, according to Haberturk. Profit share is a mechanism used by Islamic lenders that corresponds to interest payments.  (source)

CAPITAL MARKETS - Albaraka Rises in Istanbul After Announcing Capital Increase

www.bloomberg.com - Albaraka Turk Katilim Bankasi AS (ALBRK), a Turkish Islamic bank, advanced after announcing a capital increase.

The shares gained 1.5 percent to 2.01 liras by the close in Istanbul after surging as much as 11 percent, the biggest intraday increase since October 2009.  (source)

CAPITAL MARKETS - Asya Up as Buyout Firm Said to Be Near Deal on Part-Owned Stores

www.bloomberg.com - Asya Katilim Bankasi AS (ASYAB), an Islamic bank that’s part-owner of a grocery chain, gained for the first day in three after a U.S. buyout firm was said to be close to acquiring a stake in the retailer.

Asya shares rallied 1.6 percent to 1.96 liras at 5:08 p.m. in Istanbul. The deal values A101 Yeni Magazacilik AS at 900 million liras ($505 million), three people with knowledge of the matter said.

Capital Group International is nearing an agreement to buy 35 percent of A101, the people said. The retail chain has 1,075 stores in Turkey and is majority owned by the Aydin family. Asya has a 22 percent stake in the company, the people said. (source)

CAPITAL MARKETS - Turkish Stocks: Bank Asya, Torunlar, Turkish Airlines Move

www.bloomberg.com - Turkey’s benchmark ISE National 100 Index (XU100) retreated 0.4 percent to 61,544.94 at the close in Istanbul, falling for a third day and paring its gain this year to 20 percent.

The following stocks were active. Stock symbols are in parentheses.

Asya Katilim Bankasi AS (ASYAB TI), an Islamic lender also known as Bank Asya, fell 1 percent to 1.93 liras. Turkey’s revenue-linked bonds were deemed to break Islamic law barring earnings from interest by a leading professor who advises the country’s Islamic banks, Vatan reported. The Treasury has sold about 1 billion liras of such debt and Islamic lenders have requested the Treasury swap the fixed income instrument for other paper, Vatan said citing Osman Akyuz, head of a group representing the banks.

Albaraka Turk Katilim Bankasi AS (ALBRK) , another Islamic bank, fell 1 percent to 2.01 liras. (source)

CAPITAL MARKETS - Turkey Stocks: Asya Katilim, Turkcell, Vakifbank Were Active

www.bloomberg.com - The following stocks were active. Stock symbols are in parentheses.

Asya Katilim Bankasi AS (ASYAB) , an Islamic bank, climbed 1.1 percent to 1.82 liras, outperforming the overall banking index, which fell less than 0.1 percent. A private equity firm is close to buying discount retailer A101 Yeni Magazicilik AS, in which Bank Asya owns a 22 percent stake, according to a Dow Jones Newswires report. (source)

CAPITAL MARKETS - Erdogan Faces Worse Deal in Sukuk Than Dollar Debt Market: Turkey Credit

www.bloomberg.com - Turkey, planning its first sale of bonds that comply with Islamic law, may have to pay about a percentage point more in interest than on bonds sold in dollars that don’t have religious restrictions.

Turkey, the second-biggest Muslim economy after Indonesia, will probably have to pay a minimum of 5.5 percent annually on five-year debt to be attractive, according to Samer Mardini, vice president of fixed-income and Islamic finance products at SJS Markets Ltd. in Dubai. That’s 120 basis points higher than similar maturity dollar debt, data compiled by Bloomberg show.  (source)

BANKING - Turkish Stocks: Akbank, Albaraka, Tofas, Turkish Airlines Move

www.bloomberg.com - Albarak Turk Katilim Bankasi AS (ALBRK) , an Islamic bank (QIBK), dropped 3.1 percent to 1.89 liras, its biggest loss since Jan. 6. Albaraka won’t pay a dividend from last year’s profit, the lender said in a statement to the exchange today. (source)

Islamic Development Bank Extends $668 Million in Loans, SPA Says - High Speed Railway Ankara Konya Included

www.bloomberg.com - The Islamic Development Bank, a Saudi Arabia-based multilateral lender, approved $668 million in loans to finance projects in 12 countries, the Saudi Press Agency reported, citing the bank.

The loans include $229 million for a 304-kilometer (189- mile) high-speed rail line linking Turkey’s capital Ankara with Konya and $228 million for a sewerage network west of the Iranian capital Tehran, the news service said. (source)

BANKING - Turkish Islamic Banks Gave Mostly Construction Loans

(Corrects story yesterday to show Yahsi is CEO of Albaraka Turk, not Asya Katilim in the second paragraph.)

Turkey’s Islamic banks gave most loans to construction companies and will continue lending to Turkish firms this year, Sabah reported. (source)

WORLD - OIC - Islamic Development Bank Approves Record $4.2 Billion of Loans - launching gateway office in Turkey

The Islamic Development Bank, a Jeddah-based multilateral lender, said it approved a record $4.2 billion in financing for projects around the world this year.

Funding included $105 million for a power-generation, transmission and distribution program in Mauritania’s capital, Nouakchott, $53 million for the Saudi Arabian SME Fund and $11 million to support the second phase of a road project in Morocco, the lender said in an e-mailed statement today.

“As part of IDB’s vision to become a world-class organization by 2020, the board of directors has also approved the launching of five IDB pilot gateway offices in Egypt, Turkey, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Nigeria to follow up on the implementation of IDB projects,” President Ahmed Mohamed Ali said in the statement. “If after three years the progress of these offices is positive, similar offices could be opened in the future.”  (source)

BANKING - Five Islamic Banks From Gulf to Invest in Turkey, Star Says

Five Islamic banks, each with equity capital of less than $500 million, will invest in Turkey in the next two years, Star said, citing Fahrettin Yahsi, head of Islamic banks’ association in Turkey.  (source)

CAPITAL MARKETS - Islamic Bond Alert

ALBARAKA TURK KATILIM BANKASI AS (ALBRK): The Turkish Islamic bank owned by Bahrain-based Albaraka Banking Group BSC hired Deutsche Bank AG, Emirates NBD, QInvest Llc and Noor Islamic Bank to manage a sale of as much as $200 million of five-year Islamic bonds, it said in a statement to the Istanbul Stock Exchange on Oct. 21. 

ASYA KATILIM BANKASI AS (ASYAB): The Turkish Islamic bank will offer as much as $300 million of five-year sukuk. Bank Asya, as the lender is known, hired Citigroup Inc. and UBS AG for the sale and has started talks with investors, the bank said in a filing with the Istanbul Stock Exchange.(source)

BANKING - Doha Bank Considers 2012 Acquisition in Emerging Market - Could beTurkey

Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Doha Bank QSC, Qatar’s fifth-largest lender by market value, may make an acquisition before the end of 2012 as part of a broader plan to expand, Chief Executive Officer Raghavan Seetharaman said.

“It could be in Turkey, it could be emerging markets, we are looking at other options,” Seetharaman said in an interview in Dubai yesterday. “We are going to grow, and it’s a goal in line with the overall financial stability of Qatar.” (source)