Kuveyt Türk CEO Ufuk Uyan says the lender aims to issue Turkey’s first five-year sukuk. 
Kuveyt Türk, the Turkish unit of Kuwait Finance House, is planning to sell five-year Shariah-compliant debt, the longest maturity by a Turkish borrower, its chief executive Ufuk Uyan said.Kuveyt Türk will benefit from interest in a similar sale last year of $100 million of three-year Islamic bonds, also known as sukuk, Uyan said in an e-mailed statement Monday. The sales will enable the bank, one of the four Islamic lenders in Turkey, to tap Gulf funds, he said. (full story)
“Our target in the coming period is to issue Turkey’s first five-year sukuk,” Uyan said. He did not say when the sale would take place.
The Istanbul-based lender may sell more than $100 million of the bonds after last August’s borrowing, the first in the nation since regulators allowed companies to offer Islamic bonds, Uyan said in an interview on Aug. 25. The Turkish government is also considering selling such debt, Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said in an interview with Bloomberg HT television on Aug. 25.
Emaar Properties, a United Arab Emirates real estate developer, was the only issuer of Islamic bonds so far this year with a $500 million sale in January, according to Bloomberg data.
Turkey allowed companies to issue debt in accordance with Islamic finance rules in April last year.
Source : http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=kuveyt-turk-plans-five-year-islamic-bond-sale-2011-03-14 - March 14, 2011
