KFH Capital achieved landmark transactions across Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE, including the world’s first Tier‑2 Sustainability Sukuk. The business transformed from a paper‑based company to the one initiating fully automated, traceable workflows in the Islamic Financial landscape, by combining technical structuring expertise with a firm commitment to ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) principles and digital modernisation.

These efforts saw the venture getting recognised with the honours of being the “Best Green Sukuk Structuring – Kuwait 2025” and “Best Digital Transformation in Financial Services – Kuwait 2025,” at the recently concluded International Finance Awards, reflecting the company’s ability to lead on two critical fronts: sustainability and innovation.

KFH Capital is among the largest participants in the global Sukuk issuance market, consistently attracting robust international demand and achieving oversubscriptions that signal deep investor confidence. In 2021, the company coordinated the Kuveyt Turk Katılım Bankası USD 350 million Tier‑II Sustainability Sukuk—the first of its kind globally and the first sustainability Sukuk from an Islamic financial institution. The issuance was oversubscribed nearly 12x, setting a new precedent for ESG‑aligned Islamic Finance.

Landmark Sustainable Transactions
Between 2024 and 2025, KFH Capital played active roles across six sustainable transactions in Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE, totalling USD 3.8 billion. With Qatar International Islamic Bank, the company got the first sustainable Sukuk listed on the London Stock Exchange. The collaboration with the Dubai Islamic Bank resulted in the creation of KFH Capital’s pioneering sustainability‑linked Sukuk.

Warba Bank launched its first sustainable Sukuk from Kuwait. Additionally, partnering with Aldar Investment Properties led KFH Capital to issue an “Oversubscribed Green Sukuk,” reinforcing net-zero commitments.

In each case, KFH Capital served as joint lead manager and bookrunner, showcasing capabilities in structuring, marketing, and delivering complex, first‑of‑a‑kind deals. The company’s repeat activity underscores reliability and strategic importance in connecting MENA capital with global sustainability demand.

Strategy And Principles
In tandem with its sustainable finance achievements, KFH Capital executed a sweeping digital transformation, migrating from fragmented, paper‑based systems to fully automated, end‑to‑end processes. The impact was immediate, as the client onboarding times got compressed from days to minutes. Operational error rates, on the other hand, fell to near zero, while scalability improved without additional manpower.

KFH Capital’s digital transformation strategy rested upon four principles: customer‑designed journeys, automation of repeatable tasks, full traceability at every stage and system integrability across the estate.

Rejecting one‑size‑fits‑all ERP models, KFH Capital built a tailored digital ecosystem aligned to the company’s culture and client needs. Embedded teams mapped workflows, challenged legacy policies, and prototyped solutions with exacting user‑experience standards. Key initiatives included digitised onboarding, workflow‑based controls to eliminate errors, and transparent performance monitoring.

The outcomes were not limited to efficiency gains—they strengthened governance, compliance, and auditability, ensuring that controls scale alongside growth. Looking ahead, KFH Capital’s roadmap focuses on expanding automation, self‑service capabilities, and data‑driven decision‑making, positioning the business as a reference model for modern services in the region.

By structuring landmark Sukuk issuances that advance ESG objectives and by executing a disciplined digital transformation programme, KFH Capital has demonstrated measurable impact and long-term scalability.

As global markets evolve, KFH Capital continues to set benchmarks in Islamic finance, combining technical expertise with strategic vision. Its achievements illustrate how disciplined execution and innovation can deliver value to clients, investors, and stakeholders, while positioning Kuwait as a hub for sustainable and modern financial services.

Image Courtesy: KFH Capital

The post KFH Capital: Leading MENA’s green sukuk and digital innovation efforts appeared first on International Finance.

Hamed Ali, chief executive of Nasdaq Dubai and deputy CEO of NASDAQ told the media, “We are pleased to welcome the new listings from the Government of Indonesia, the largest sovereign sukuk issuer on Nasdaq Dubai. This mounting presence of international issuers clearly underscores Dubai’s active role in promoting Islamic economy, Shari’a-compliant financial markets as well as supporting sustainable economic development across the world.”

This year in March, the UAE announced it will invest $10 billion with Indonesia’s sovereign wealth fund, specifically focusing on sectors that have strong growth potential. According to state news agency WAM, the investment with the Indonesia Investment Authority follows the directives of Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces. The investment will focus on sectors including infrastructure, roads, ports, tourism, agriculture.

Currently, NASDAQ Dubai holds six green and one sustainable sukuk that has a total valuation of $6.55 billion, along with its regional involvement in the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) sector. After seeing how Indonesian sukuk has been performing in the Middle East market, many central banks and sovereign wealth funds in Southeast Asia and the Middle East are intrigued in the investment, with a combined order book exceeding $10.3 billion.

The post Indonesia lists three sukuk valued at $3 bn on NASDAQ Dubai to fund socio-economic development appeared first on International Finance.

Total issuance of $87 billion in the first six months of the year is a 37 percent increase when compared to the same period last year. Islamic bonds issued in 2019 are also expected to increase by 5.7 percent from $123 billion in 2018. This will be the fourth consecutive annual increase that is attributed to increased activities in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.

According to Moody’s, strong Islamic bond issuance in the first six months has reduced sovereign and corporate funding needs.

“We, therefore, expect second-half volumes to moderate to around US$43 billion, though Malaysia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, will continue issuing regularly,” Vice President at Moody’s, Nitish Bhojnagarwala told the media.

According to Moody’s,  Islamic Bonds issued in Southeast Asia also increased significantly by 41 percent. Bonds issued by the Gulf Cooperation Council countries increased by 9 percent during the first six months of the year. The credit rating agency expects new entrants from Africa and the issue of Green sukuk to increase issuance. It also expects the green sukuk market to grow significantly especially in Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia.

Recently, Indonesia raised around $561 million through a biweekly Islamic bond auction. Earlier this month, Turkish mining company Eti Krom hired JP Morgan to raise $250 million from its first sale of Islamic bonds.

The post Moody’s: Islamic Bond issuance to hit $130 bn in 2019 appeared first on International Finance.

A tax-exempt bond issued by federally qualified organizations to fund projects that apart from fulfilling financial obligations, possess environmental or climate benefits, green bonds came into prominence in 2007 when they were launched by a few development banks like European Development Bank and World Bank. Since then, however, the appetite for green bonds has grown manifold with the past 4 years proving to be a key period in the rapid development of the market.

While green bonds are most suited for long-term projects, they could also be used an instruments to steer capital for urgent environmental transitions. Preliminary estimates for Green Bond Issuance in 2017 by HSBC, Moody’s & Climate Bonds Initiative are all in excess of USD 100bn signifying the massive opportunity this sector harbours.

Interestingly, the green bond market has grown at an impressive 50% compound growth rate, from close to zero at its inception in 2007 to US$91Bn in 2015. However, this statistic still represents less than 0.1% of the total global market for debt securities. (KPMG, 2016)

While the financial industry-led Green Bond Principles launched in 2014 have triggered market growth, organizations like Climate Bonds Initiative have greatly raised the awareness of the importance of green bonds and helped in developing standards for specific asset classes that would qualify as green bonds.

However, despite the significant opportunities that lie in green financing, the sector faces a number of key obstacles. These include an extremely diversified market making it complicated to develop standards effectively, the mindset of bond issuers whereby they believe that meeting such standards could lead to additional costs and treating the relevant expertise, additional monitoring and reporting needed in such cases as a big burden. (KPMG, 2016)

Another key instrument in green financing is Green Sukuk – Shari’ah compliant investments in renewable energy and other environmental assets which also address the Shari’ah concern for protecting the environment. Proceeds from green sukuk are used to finance construction, to refinance construction debt, or to finance the payment of a government-granted green subsidy.

While there are significant opportunities for Green Sukuk in the solar energy plans of Gulf countries due to the ease of understanding underlying assets and how the return is generated, there is however, a shortage of product. As per the Climate Bonds Initiative, an estimated 25-40% of institutional investors’ assets under management are dedicated to fixed-income debt, including asset-backed securities. The sukuk market is the most suitable to channelize the growing global pool of Shari’ah-compliant capital to fund renewable energy and climate change projects.

In light of the above developments, Global Ethical Finance Forum (GEFF) 2017 will spearhead an exclusive session focusing on how green bonds and sukuk can go mainstream. The session will focus in-depth on decarbonizing portfolios, the recent Paris Climate Change Agreement, the investor pool for green sukuk in OIC & OECD markets, challenges unique to green bonds and sukuk and delve into relevant country-specific case studies. A key issue that will be taken into account are the opportunities for green bond in the solar energy plans of Gulf countries. Key Speakers at the session include Mike Clark, Founder Director, Ario Advisory; Lim Say Cheong, Executive Vice President, Tawreeq Holdings; Lilian Georgopoulou, Fixed Income Manager, London Stock Exchange and Yasser Saud Dahlawi, CEO, Shariyah Review Bureau.

Across two power-packed days, GEFF 2017 will spearhead a series of sessions focusing on the massive opportunity that lies in mainstreaming ethical finance, one that requires concerted efforts to build meaningful dialogue across its three segments: Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) and Islamic/faith-based finance. The forum aims to drive thought leadership across a wide range of topics including green bonds, financial inclusion, ethical banking, amongst others, with the vision of bringing ethics to the forefront of business.

The forum will take place on 13th and 14th of September at the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS)’s prestigious Conference Centre in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Middle East Global Advisors, a leading financial intelligence platform spearheading the agenda of sustainable and inclusive finance, will convene the second edition of the much-coveted GEFF in Edinburgh, Scotland. Based on a strategic partnership with Islamic Finance Council UK (UKIFC), the Forum will be held under the patronage of the Scottish Government, supported by the UK Government and will be hosted by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), building upon the legacy of the inaugural Forum held in September 2015.

The theme for GEFF 2017 – “Ethical Finance: Merging Profit & Purpose”, is in line with the Forum’s aspiration to serve as a platform of convergence and collaboration across the responsible finance universe, and to forge a vision for a more inclusive and sustainable financial system.

The post Past 4 years saw rapid development of Green Bonds market appeared first on International Finance.