Dubai: Property developer Nakheel has yet to list the first tranche of its Dh4.8 billion Islamic bond, or sukuk, on the Nasdaq Dubai after issuing it to trade creditors late last week.

"The sukuk will be listed once it is practical," a Nakheel spokesperson said Monday, without providing any further information or a date on when it would be listed.

Nakheel said on Thursday that it had started issuing the first tranche worth Dh3.8 billion under its sukuk to trade creditors, a day after the property developer announced that it had completed its Dh59 billion debt restructuring plan.

The company's chairman, Ali Rashid Lootah, last Wednesday said the Islamic bond, which is asset-backed and carries a coupon of 10 per cent, would be listed on the Nasdaq Dubai exchange within "a couple of days."

"We have received the actual sukuks in our accounts. There has been a petition to list and the application has been conducted and made but they haven't listed yet," said a Dubai-based executive of a company that's a Nakheel trade creditor.

Trading stops

"Listing it this side of Eid makes no sense because you will have trading stops for the next five days thanks to Eid. If they are thinking of listing right after Eid that makes sense but we will have to see how it goes," the executive added.

Stock markets in the Middle East will close on account of Eid Al Fitr.

Mark Fisher, spokesman for Nasdaq Dubai, yesterday said the sukuk hadn't been listed on the exchange so far.

"When something lists on Nasdaq Dubai we will make it public beforehand," he said, declining to comment on whether Nakheel had applied to list the sukuk.

Grey market

"Some people who are really hard pressed for cash were looking to sell straight away," said Loic Pelichet, assistant vice president at NBK Capital, adding that although the Nakheel sukuk wasn't trading on an official market there seemed to have been trades on the grey market.

"If there is no official market after Eid they will be angry," Pelichet said.

Nakheel got into financial trouble in late 2009 after being hit hard by the fallout from the global financial crisis.

Last year, Nakheel trade creditors were offered repayment through a mix of 40 per cent cash and 60 per cent via sukuk as part of the company's complex restructuring, which involved aggregate debt of Dh59 billion-made up of Dh19 billion owed to trade creditors, Dh8 billion to banks and Dh32 billion to the Dubai government.