International Islamic Liquidity Management Corp (IILM), which counts nine central banks as its shareholders, plans to sell US$1.34 billion of three-month bills, its biggest offering since being set up in 2010 to support Shariah-compliant financial activity.
The Kuala Lumpur-based institution, which added two more primary dealers to its existing network of nine last week, will auction the Islamic notes on Thursday next week, it said in a statement.
IILM has a short-term issuer rating of “A-1” from Standard & Poor’s, the second-highest investment grade, and has sold a total US$14 billion of debt denominated in the US currency.
While IILM has increased issuance of short-term paper each year since its debut offering in 2013, the supply is far short of the US$400 billion that Ernst & Young LLP estimates is needed to help Islamic banks manage their liquidity. Global sukuk sales slumped 29 percent last year, the most since the credit crunch of 2008.
“There’s a lot of demand for short-term paper from banks seeking to manage their cashflow,” said Adissadikin Ali, the Kuala Lumpur-based chief executive officer at the Malaysian unit of Bahrain’s Bank Alkhair. “IILM’s planned sale is a positive move as it will promote greater activity in the Islamic finance industry.”
Worldwide Islamic bond sales fell to US$35.4 billion last year, the lowest in five years, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. Issuance edged up 1.8 percent in 2014 and declined 5.6 percent the previous year, off the peak of almost US$52 billion in 2012.
IILM was formed by central banks, including those from the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Africa and Luxembourg, as well as the Islamic Development Bank based in Saudi Arabia.
The yield on its existing Islamic bills maturing in April rose 2 basis points to 1.11 percent on Wednesday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The notes were sold to yield 1.0736 percent.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last