Middle East Bonds

Al Hilal’s prospects of issuing a debut sukuk in 2013 have been boosted by the bank having received A1 and A+ ratings by Moody’s and Fitch.

Qatar's central bank will issue Qr3bn ($824m) of conventional government bonds and QR1bn of sukuk on September 10.

Saudi Arabian dairy company Almarai plans to issue Sr1.7bn ($453m) of perpetual sukuk and has chosen four local lenders to arrange the deal.

Albaraka Türk, the Turkish unit of the Bahraini Islamic bank, is planning to issue $200m of sukuk towards the end of this year or the beginning of next year.

The International Islamic Liquidity Management has sold its short term dollar sukuk — the first of its kind in the Shariah-compliant capital market. The $490m programme has taken more than 2-1/2 years of work to complete.

The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB)’s Bd18m ($47.7m) monthly issue of sukuk al-salam has been oversubscribed by 287%.

Arabtec Holding is planning to make its bond market debut later this year or early in 2014 with a non-convertible bond of up to $450m.

Turkey will issue nearly TL1.9bn ($975m) of two year ijara sukuk on Wednesday.

Turkey is on course to issue a second sovereign benchmark sukuk in the coming weeks, according to market participants — meaning it is likely to be one of the first big deals to reopen the Islamic bond market after its summer lull.

Jordan has signed a loan agreement with the US, which will guarantee the principal and coupon payments on a seven year bond deal of up to $1.25bn from the sovereign.

Turkey’s Ziraat Bank is hoping to launch a debut Eurobond later this year, and has picked banks for a benchmark size transaction. The issuer is also looking at breaking into the covered bond and sukuk markets further down the road as part of an effort to diversify away from deposit funding.

The Central Bank of Bahrain has sold BD20m ($53m) of monthly short term sukuk al-ijara, with the auction oversubscribed by 270%.