The centre of power in Islamic debt issuance is shifting back to South East Asia after the Gulf enjoyed a short rise to prominence before the global financial crisis.
The value of Islamic bonds, or sukuk, raised in the Gulf so far this year has fallen by 25 per cent to US$2.5 billion (Dh9.18bn) compared with the same period last year, Bloomberg reported. Asian borrowers have raised $5.7bn this year. Khalid Howladar, an Islamic finance expert at Moody's Investors Service, said while appetite for Gulf sukuk had been driven by global demand, the Asian economies where sukuk are popular - Malaysia and Indonesia - have great domestic interest.
"In the Asian countries like Indonesia and Malaysia, demand is more domestically driven," Mr Howladar said. "The people there want it, the governments want it, the regulators want it and the whole system works in concert to make it happen. Here I think it's more capital market driven."
Saudi Arabia has the potential to harness a domestic surge in demand, he said, given its population of about 25 million and strong culture of investing.
Analysts have long thought that appetite for Gulf sukuk might pick up as Dubai World neared a deal on its $23.5bn debt restructuring. But there is little evidence of that coming closer to reality, even as the government-owned conglomerate sews up a final pact with scores of banks and trade creditors.
"It's of strategic importance that some of the countries here in the Gulf look towards developing these markets," Mohammed Dawood, the director of debt capital markets at HSBC in Dubai, said last week. "Especially to compete with Malaysia, the development of the local market will be crucial."
The Malaysian government has played a crucial role in developing and sustaining the local Islamic finance market there over the past two decades.
The government has built up regulatory structures for Sharia-compliant assets and made the industry's growth a political priority. As a result, Malaysia is now the world's largest issuer of sukuk, with $1.25bn of the securities sold in May.
No government in the Gulf has issued Islamic bonds this year.
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
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