Dubai: Emirates Islamic has closed a $500 million five-year sukuk forming part of its $2.5 billion 'Certificate Issuance Programme'. The issue, rated A+ by Fitch, will be listed on Nasdaq Dubai and Euronext Dublin.
Investors showed strong appetite, ensuring an order book of $1.2 billion and nearly 2.4 times the issuance size with a profit rate of 1.827 per cent. This is the lowest achieved by a UAE bank in the past 10 years.
The investor base was diversified geographically, with 41 per cent from the Middle East and North Africa, 28 per cent allocated to Asia, 17 per cent to US offshore investors and 14 per cent into Europe. Bank ABC, Citigroup, Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD Capital, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank and The Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector acted as joint lead managers and bookrunners.
Salah Amin, CEO of Emirates Islamic said: “We are extremely proud that the sukuk issuance has been oversubscribed reaffirming strong investor confidence in Emirates Islamic’s fundamentals and growth story."
