Middle East Bonds

Simon Putt, formerly BNP Paribas’s head of MENA DCM, has joined Saudi Arabian Al Rajhi Capital as head of DCM after over a year out of the market.

Mubadala, Abu Dhabi's state owned investment group, is preparing to price a $750m eight year dollar bond on Wednesday afternoon. Its starting spread struck some debt bankers as cheap. But high cash prices on Mubadala's outstanding paper have kept its secondary spreads higher than fair value, and bankers on the new bond argued they had to take this into account.

The Dubai government’s $750m sukuk held its ground on the break above re-offer at 100.05/100.10 on Wednesday after the emirate priced the note inside guidance late on Tuesday.

The Dubai government is returning to the dollar sukuk market for the first time since January last year with a drive-by 15 year benchmark — its longest tenor offering in the asset class to date.

The Central Bank of Bahrain sold its BD36m ($96m) of short term salam sukuk at a new tight print of 0.75%, but with few orders than for its previous issue.

The Dubai government priced $750m inside guidance late on Tuesday as it returned to the dollar sukuk market for the first time since January last year with a drive-by 15 year benchmark — its longest tenor offering in the asset class to date.

The International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM) has organised an industry consultative meeting in Dubai to discuss how the sukuk market can create new standards for structuring and documentation.

As if international sukuk were not already rare enough with only six dollar issuers so far in 2014, this week brought an even more unusual sighting — a deal that didn’t have an outrageously oversubscribed order book. Turkiye Finans can thank Damac Real Estate Development’s aggressive handling of investors for that, and so may the rest of the sukuk market.

The International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation (IILM) came to market for the fifth time on Thursday, reissuing an $860m three month sukuk as follow on from its first issue of that size in January.

As if international sukuk were not already rare enough with only six dollar issuers so far in 2014, this week brought an even more unusual sighting — a deal that didn’t have an outrageously oversubscribed order book. Turkiye Finans can thank Damac Real Estate Development’s aggressive handling of investors for that, and so may the rest of the sukuk market.

Turkiye Finans has led the return of Turkish participation bank issuers to the sukuk market after nearly a year of absence, achieving a strong result this week that leads on the deal hailed as a door-opener for its peers.

The Dubai Supreme Council of Energy (DSCE) and the World Bank have partnered up to design a funding strategy for Dubai’s green investment programme. This could see the emirate finance projects through green bonds or sukuk.