Emirates Islamic Successfully Closes $500M Sukuk Issuance

Investors showed strong appetite which resulted in an order book that peaked at $1.2 billion, which was 2.4 times the issuance size.

Emirates Islamic (EI) on Sunday announced that it has successfully closed a $500 million five-year Sukuk issued from its $2.5 billion Certificate Issuance Programme.

The landmark issuance, rated A+ by Fitch, is listed on Nasdaq Dubai and Euronext Dublin’s Regulated Market.

Investors showed strong appetite which resulted in an order book that peaked at $1.2 billion, which was 2.4 times the issuance size. This strong demand, from a global investor base, enabled the bank to tighten the spread on the sukuk by 25 basis points from initial guidance, resulting in a profit rate of 2.082 per cent per annum.

This pricing represents the lowest spread ever paid by a UAE bank since 2008 for a US dollar benchmark public debt issuance, further reiterating the Bank’s strong appeal to investors.

“The oversubscription and tight pricing of the issue demonstrates the strong investor confidence in our financials and growth outlook as well as the favourable outlook for the UAE economy.

The response from regional and global investors has been tremendous and we see this as a positive endorsement of the bank’s credit strength and investor proposition,” Salah Amin, chief executive officer, Emirates Islamic, said.

The transaction reopened the debt capital markets for regional issuers following a period of volatility, demonstrating a strong leadership from Emirates Islamic.

Emirates NBD Capital and Standard Chartered Bank acted as global coordinators and were joined by Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Arab Banking Corporation, Dubai Islamic Bank, HSBC Bank, The Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector and KFH Capital Investment Company as joint lead managers and joint bookrunners. Kuwait International Bank acted as co-manager.

Originally published on www.khaleejtimes.com