Islamic Finance Daily Brief — Thursday, November 5, 2026
Assalamu alaikum! Today's Islamic finance stories — and what to learn from them.
Today's stories
🌍 1. Weststar Aviation lines up a RM6 billion sukuk to fund 28 government helicopters
MARC Ratings has given a preliminary AA+IS rating, with a stable outlook, to a proposed sukuk programme of up to RM6 billion (about $1.47 billion) from Weststar Aviation. The money will fund 28 helicopters that Weststar will supply and maintain for six Malaysian government agencies under an 18-year concession. The first issue, of about RM3.83 billion (about $940 million), is expected before the end of 2026. Two helicopters are already delivered, one for the Prime Minister's Department on October 15 and one for the fire and rescue department on November 1, with the rest due through 2027.
What to learn: A concession is an agreement where the government asks a company to provide a service for a fixed number of years and pays it fixed amounts for that service. In this case the service is supplying and maintaining helicopters for defence, security and emergency response. The sukuk is backed by those fixed payments. Weststar receives a fixed monthly payment for each helicopter, whether or not it flies that month, as long as the helicopter is available for duty. That fixed payment is what repays the sukuk holders. The whole project costs about RM6.41 billion (about $1.57 billion). About RM5.76 billion (about $1.42 billion) comes from the sukuk and about RM640.5 million (about $158 million) from Weststar's own shareholders. The first sukuk issue of about RM3.83 billion will refinance existing loans and pay back money the shareholders already put in. The rating agency checked whether the payments cover the sukuk. It projects the money coming in will run at 2.61 times the money needed for repayments in the weakest year, and 3.59 times on average, against a minimum requirement of 1.65 times. A reserve account holds six months of payments as a buffer. The people in the story are the rescue crews and the patients. The helicopters fly search and rescue, medical evacuation, security patrols and training missions, and the concession also pays for training more than 1,440 pilots, crew and engineers. The change for an ordinary investor is indirect. This is an institutional sukuk, so it is not sold to the public. The lesson is the structure: a government promise of fixed payments can fund a large purchase through sukuk. In the USA, a state or city in the same position finances equipment through bonds or leases that pay interest, and no Shariah-compliant structure of this kind is a standard product there.
🔗 Source: MARC Ratings
🌍 2. 1.5 million Kenyans put money into Safaricom's Shariah fund in its first month
Safaricom's Ziidi Shari'ah Money Market Fund has drawn 1.5 million customers and KSh230 million (about $1.8 million) since its October launch, chief executive Peter Ndegwa said at the company's half-year results briefing on November 5. Anyone can start with KSh100 (about $0.78) through the M-Pesa app or by dialling *334#, with top-ups from KSh10 (about 8 cents). The fund is run with GulfCap Investment Bank, invests only in Shariah-compliant instruments, and is regulated by Kenya's Capital Markets Authority. The launch itself was covered in the Oct 14 edition; the new part is the first-month uptake.
What to learn: Money market funds were explained in the Nov 2 edition, so this section covers only what is new. The new information is the speed of uptake. 1.5 million people signed up in about a month, while the fund holds KSh230 million. That points to small balances per person, which fits a product built for first-time investors. The entry point is the key detail. KSh100 is less than a dollar, and the fund sits inside the M-Pesa app that Kenyans already use to send money. A shopkeeper or a motorcycle rider can put in a small amount from a phone without visiting a bank or a broker. The fund is separate from Safaricom's conventional money market fund, which holds about KSh25 billion (about $194 million). The separation matters because the Shariah fund invests only in instruments approved by GulfCap's Shariah board, while the conventional fund can hold interest-bearing paper. The comparison also shows the gap. The Shariah fund is less than 1% of the size of the conventional one after a month, so the next test is whether the early sign-ups turn into steady saving. In the USA, an ordinary investor in the same position uses a money market fund at a bank or broker, and Shariah-compliant versions exist but are not a standard product at most banks. The part the USA does not have is the phone-first entry at less than a dollar, built into a payment app used by nearly everyone.
🔗 Source: The Eastleigh Voice
Learn
Project finance through a government concession
Project finance is borrowing to build or buy one specific project, where the loan is repaid from the money that project earns. The lender looks at the project's income, not at the borrower's other businesses.
A concession is the agreement that makes the income reliable. The government gives a company the right to run a service for a fixed number of years. The company builds or buys what the service needs, and the government pays it fixed amounts for the service. Weststar, covered in story 1 above, supplies and maintains 28 helicopters under an 18-year concession, and the government pays a fixed monthly amount for each helicopter.
The sukuk fits into the concession in a direct way. The company raises the purchase money by issuing sukuk, and the fixed government payments repay the sukuk holders over time. The payments do not depend on how much the helicopters fly, only on whether they are available for duty. That makes the income steady enough for a rating agency to judge.
The protections sit in the numbers. The rating agency checks the coverage ratio, which is how many times the project's income covers the repayments. For Weststar it projects 2.61 times in the weakest year, against a minimum of 1.65 times. A reserve account holds six months of payments. If the government ends the concession early, the contract requires it to settle outstanding invoices and, in some cases, buy the aircraft.
A toll road works the same way. A company builds the road under a concession, drivers pay tolls, and the tolls repay the financing. The difference with Weststar is that the government pays directly instead of drivers paying tolls.
For a beginner, the point to remember is simple. In project finance, one project stands on its own income. The concession is the promise that the income will arrive, and the sukuk turns that promise into funding.
All sources
- MARC Ratings — MARC assigns preliminary AA+IS rating to Weststar Aviation's proposed sukuk issuance (Nov 4, 2026)
- The Eastleigh Voice — Safaricom's Shari'ah money market fund draws 1.5 million users, holds Sh230 million in first month (Nov 5, 2026)
- GulfCap Investment Bank — GulfCap partners with Safaricom to launch the Ziidi Shari'ah Money Market Fund (Oct 2026)