Emirates Islamic successfully closes US$ 250 million tap of Sukuk issuance

Emirates Islamic, one of the leading Islamic financial institutions in the UAE, today announced that it has successfully closed a US$ 250 million tap of its earlier US$ 750 million 5-year Sukuk issued in May 2016. This is under the bank’s US$ 2.5 billion Certificate Issuance Programme. The tap generated an order book of US$ 706 million, reflecting the solid regional and international investor confidence in the bank.

Earlier this month, ratings agency Fitch affirmed Emirates Islamic’s ‘A+’ rating, assigning the bank a Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (LT IDR) of ‘A+’ with a Stable Outlook, Short-Term IDR (ST IDR) of 'F1', and a Viability Rating (VR) at 'bb-'. The ratings agency also affirmed the bank’s Support Rating of '1'.

Jamal Bin Ghalaita, Chief Executive Officer of Emirates Islamic said: “The transaction has allowed us to benefit from current market opportunities, including availability of cheaper liquidity and a lower profit rate environment. We are delighted with the overwhelming interest in our offering which will enable us to secure long term growth and development plans. The success of this transaction demonstrates the strong investor confidence in our financials and growth outlook as well as the favourable outlook for the UAE economy.” 

Emirates Islamic reported an AED 137 million net profit in H1 2016, with an 11 per cent increase in total income (net of customers’ share of profit) to AED 1.23 billion compared to the total income (excluding one offs) for the same period last year. The bank’s total Assets were at AED 57.2 billion, up by 8 per cent from end 2015 and customer deposits increased by 6.2 per cent from end 2015 to AED 41.8 billion.

The tap was priced at 5Y Mid-swaps +170bps and attracted investment from across GCC, Asia and Europe. The Joint Lead Managers for the transaction were Bank ABC, Dubai Islamic Bank, EMCAP and Standard Chartered Bank.