The Gulf region's largest sharia compliant banking institution in terms of assets, the Qatar Islamic Bank, has said that it is not expecting to issue more Islamic bonds before 2014. This assessment was made by its Chief Executive Officer last Wednesday.
QIB CEO Bassel Gamal said, "I don't think it will be needed, there seems to be enough liquidity currently."
The largest shareholder in QIB is the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar, the Qatar Investment Authority. Last October, it tapped the bond market with a US$750 million five year sukuk bond issue. This is part of the overall sukuk programme of the bank valued at US$1.5 billion.
Gamal added that local currency sukuks would be expected to be issued in the coming years. He said, "In the coming years, we expect some corporations to issue sukuk in local currency, thus creating their own yield curve with the potential of issuing on the global markets in the years to come."
He also said, "Indeed, we have seen many countries encouraging local issuances of sukuk, such as Saudi Arabia and Malaysia."
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