Raja Teh Maimunah, CEO of Hong Leong Islamic Bank, in an interview with Bloomberg stated that Malaysian Islamic banks need to merge to achieve economies of scale, and that the prospects of a possible merger are always on the table. She also explains the potential for growth in digital payments, especially in Vietnam and Indonesia as well as witnessing slower growth in Malaysia. »

SapuraKencana Petroleum, Malaysia's leading oil and gas company, announced it had issued $200 million worth of sukuk on Tuesday to refinance some of its debt. The issuance, the first tranche of a multicurrency, medium-term notes program, is being offered through wholly owned subsidiary SapuraKencana TMC. The deal was priced at 4.85% with a seven year maturity and marked a rate foreign currency suk... »

Spreads on 10 year Malaysian sukuk over conventional have more than halved since being added to the Barclays Capital Aggregate Bond Index. Malaysia's Shariah-compliant government investment issues were included in the Barclays Global Aggregate Index on March 31, with a weighting of 0.18 percent. At the time of the announcement it was estimated the move would attract at least $2.5 billion to $3 bil... »

Sukuk gained marginally c.0.04%; yield rose to 2.353%. The Bloomberg Malaysia Sukuk Ex-MYR Total Return (BMSXMTR) ended flat (+0.04% WoW) at 101.63 (week prior: -0.22% to 101.59), with weighted average yield widening 1.0bps to 2.353% (week prior: +5.9bps to 2.343%). »