Nasdaq Dubai welcomed Emirates Islamic’s maiden 5-year sustainability sukuk issuance, which raised $750 million. This issuance falls under the $2.5 billion certificate issuance program and marks a significant milestone in Emirates Islamic Bank’s sustainability journey in the Islamic finance industry. With this listing, the total value of sukuk listings by Emirates Islamic on Nasdaq Dubai reached $2.02 billion from four listings.
Emirates Islamic’s 5-year sustainability sukuk issuance witnessed robust demand from investors across different regions with 44 percent of orders coming from outside of the MENA region. The listing’s order book exceeded $2.10 billion, which reflects an oversubscription rate of 2.8 times. This allowed the bank to tighten the expected profit rate to 5.431 percent per annum, at a spread of 100 basis points over 5-year U.S. Treasuries.
Facilitating innovative financial instruments
Emirates Islamic issued its sustainability sukuk in line with Emirates NBD Group’s sustainable finance framework and in compliance with Shariah rules and principles according to its internal Shariah supervision committee.
Sustainable sukuk, including Emirates Islamic’s latest issuance, reiterates Nasdaq Dubai’s growing portfolio of debt securities and its consistent focus on facilitating innovative financial instruments. Therefore, to commemorate the successful listing, Hesham Abdulla Al Qassim, chairman of Emirates Islamic and vice chairman and managing director of Emirates NBD, rang the bell at the market-opening ceremony at Nasdaq Dubai, along with Hamed Ali, CEO of Nasdaq Dubai and DFM.
“The listing of our first sustainability sukuk on Nasdaq Dubai represents our dedication to be the pioneering Shariah-compliant bank for customers, people and communities, as well as our continuing commitment to fostering sustainability,” commented Al Qassim. He also added that this partnership with Nasdaq Dubai fosters a future of sustainable growth in accordance with Islamic values and propels the UAE’s goal of net-zero by 2050 forward.
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Global center for sukuk listings
As a leading global center for sukuk listings, Dubai has recorded an outstanding value of $93 billion in sukuk issuances. Following Emirates Islamic’s latest addition, 44 percent of these listings by value are from UAE issuers. Meanwhile, 56 percent are from overseas issuers.
For its part, Nasdaq Dubai continues to solidify its status as the premier platform regionally and globally for both fixed-income and ESG-related listings. Hence, it holds a total value of $129 billion in listed fixed income and $29 billion in ESG listings, $9.5 billion of which are sustainability issuances.
“Such innovative listings not only enhance our role as the leading global hub for Islamic finance but also reinforce our commitment to driving sustainable investments and fostering a robust and diverse financial ecosystem,” stated Hamed Ali.
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