President of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Ahmed Mohamed Ali lauded the support provide by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for IDB since its inception and praised the strong interest shown by the UAE-based financial institutions including the UAE Central Bank in the recently launched Sukuk issue.
Addressing senior dignitaries in Abu Dhabi Ali said, "IDB carries a special gratitude to the financial institutions in the UAE for taking the lion's share, over one third of the Sukuk issue, which translates into approximately $150 million. It is projected that in order to maintain an annual growth rate of seven percent in its operations, the IDB will have to raise no less than four billion dollars over the next 10-years.”
The $400 million Sukuk issue is considered the first international Islamic capital markets bond issue by a non-sovereign and only the second such international Islamic issue. Citigroup acted as Ratings Advisor, Sole Bookrunner and Lead Manager on the transaction with Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank and Kuwait Finance House acting as co-lead managers. Co-managers on the transaction were HSBC and Nomura.
The IDB Sukuk issue was originally targeted for $300 million, however due to strong demand from institutional investors, the size was increased to $400 million, limited only by the availability of underlying assets that formed the asset pool against which the bonds were issued.
The purpose of IDB is to foster the economic development and social progress of member countries and Muslim communities, individually as well as jointly, in accordance with the principles of Shariah Islamic Law. The present membership of IDB consists of 54 countries.
IDB is headquartered in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, with regional offices in Morocco, Malaysia and Kazkahstan. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
