Dubai: Bahrain-based Al Baraka Banking Group plans to sell Islamic bonds, or sukuk, worth $300 million (Dh1.1 billion) as early as September in a bid to tidy up its balance sheet, and is also targeting a 15 per cent jump in profit this year as it attracts new customers, the firm's president and chief executive said yesterday.
"We plan to issue $300 million sukuk in September, let's say during the end of the third quarter and the early part of the fourth quarter," Adnan Yousuf said. "We hired two international banks and two local banks for the sale," he added. The sukuk issue will help Al Baraka "restructure the balance sheet from a liabilities side", said Yousuf.
Al Baraka earlier this month said first quarter net income rose by 11 per cent to $53.5 million compared with the same period last year.
Total assets meanwhile increased by 3 per cent to $16.3 billion, and deposits, including equity of investment account holders, was 2 per cent higher at the end of March, compared with the year earlier.
