Emirates Sukuk Boost to UK

Emirates Airlines has issued a sukuk with which was 3.6 times oversubscribed. The 10-year sukuk issued under the SPV name Khadrawy Limited was priced at 2.471%, full details of Sukuk can be found here.

The successful issuance represents a success for the UK government as it provided guarantee to the unrated sukuk through the Export Credits Guarantee Department of the UK Government (currently operating as UK Export Finance). The UK Government is pushing London to becoming a major centre in the Islamic finance market, and it is hoped this issuance as well as last year’s UK Sovereign issuance will spur domestic UK corporates to issue sukuk denominated in sterling.

Hong Kong Set for Second Sukuk

Hong Kong too has ambitions to build itself as a centre for Islamic finance. It successfully placed a large $1bn sukuk last year and is readying itself for a second issuance. Having already announced a Wakala structure for the upcoming issuance, it yesterday appointed HSBC and Standard Chartered as global co-ordinators, and joint bookrunners along with CIMB and National Bank of Abu Dhabi, these banks being the same banks which arranged the first issuance.

Sukuk Market Picking Up

After a slow start to the year, Sukuk market activity is picking up with a slew of recent issuances as well as a strong pipeline of upcoming issuances, some from new market participants such as Egypt, which announced earlier this week the intended passing of a sukuk law in time for the new fiscal year starting in July.