UAE’s first dirham T-sukuk gets bids worth $2.3bn

WAM

The UAE’s first AED1.1 billion ($299.6 million) dirham-denominated Islamic treasury sukuk (T-sukuk) was oversubscribed 7.6 times, getting bids worth AED8.3 billion ($2.26 billion).

The strong demand was witnessed across both tranches, with a final allocation of AED 550 million for the two-year tranche, and AED 550 million for the three-year tranche, the ministry of finance said in a statement published by the UAE state-run WAM news agency.

“T-sukuk issuances will offer high-quality Islamic assets at competitive prices due to the increase in the investor base,” UAE finance minister Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum was quoted as saying.

The first T-sukuk auction will soon be listed on Nasdaq Dubai to promote secondary market trading along with primary dealers. 

The sukuk will be issued initially in two, three and five-year tenures followed by a 10-year tenor at a later date.

In April, Mohamed bin Hadi Al Hussaini, minister of state for financial affairs, said the UAE is keen to build an investment infrastructure to boost the Islamic economy as one of the key pillars of the national economy.

T-sukuk are sharia-compliant financial certificates and will be traded to reflect the local return on investment and support economic diversification and financial inclusion, he added.

The finance ministry had onboarded eight banks: Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Emirates NBD, First Abu Dhabi Bank, HSBC, Mashreq and Standard Chartered as primary dealers to participate in the T-sukuk auction.