Western sukuk left floundering after Dubai: lawyer

* username: rupertbu

The market for issuance of sukuk in the UK and Europe is struggling to reignite in the aftermath of the Dubai World standoff and a recovery in more traditional forms of financing, a specialist lawyer said on Monday.

Farmida Bi, a partner at the Norton Rose in London, said the pipeline for Islamic bonds in the UK, the most sophisticated Islamic financial market in Europe, was "not fantastic."

"Twelve months ago all sorts of UK and European corporates were talking to us about tapping the Islamic markets because either their conventional sources had dried up or they were concerned they may dry up," Bi said at the Reuters Islamic Banking and Finance Summit on Monday.