Bahrain taps thirst for sukuk, prices inside Italy

With western European sovereign bonds slumping yet further this week, the Kingdom of Bahrain was able to get its oversubscribed $750m sukuk issue away inside Italy. Despite marking the first benchmark deal from a country directly affected by the Arab Spring turmoil, the seven year bond emerged at a 6.273% profit rate compared to 6.79% on the EU sovereign’s conventional 2018s.