An unnamed government new to Islamic finance is scheduled for its first sukuk issue before the end of March, Citigroup’s director of global Islamic banking said in Beirut today.Declining to provide further details, Dubai based Hulusi Horozoglu said: “The size of the issue is not decided yet.”
Citigroup is working on several issues from the Middle East and new markets which should be carried out by the end of the first quarter of 2011, he said. The bank should lead a number of sales of Islamic debt, or sukuk, from Turkey next year, Horozoglu said.
The new Turkish issues will probably be bigger than the $100 million sold by Kuveyt Turk Katilim Bankasi AS, a bank, in August, he said.
Sales of sukuk fell 29 percent to $13.5 billion as of November 4 after reaching a record $31 billion in 2007 before the collapse of the credit markets drove investors away from all but the safest government securities, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Islamic law, or Shariah, bars investment in industries such as gambling and alcohol, while sukuk are typically backed by assets such as real estate.
Source : http://www.arabianbusiness.com/new-sovereign-sell-islamic-bonds-says-citigroup--360272.html - Nov 5, 2010
