(Bloomberg) — Bahrain’s Al Baraka Banking Group BSC picked seven banks, including Credit Agricole SA and Standard Chartered Plc, to help arrange the international sale of Islamic bonds, people with knowledge of the matter said.
The Islamic bank also hired Emirates NBD PJSC, Dubai Islamic Bank PJSC, Noor Bank PJSC, QInvest LLC and Kuwait Finance House for the dollar-denominated tier one sukuk, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. Al Baraka may sell at least $500 million as soon as the second quarter, they said.
S&P Global Ratings on Tuesday affirmed its BB+/B rating for the bank with a negative outlook, saying the planned sukuk would improve its capitalization. Al Baraka had a tier one, risk-based capital ratio of about 14 percent at the end of 2016, according to its annual report for the year.
An official at Al Baraka referred Bloomberg to a statement issued after the EGM, which said a sukuk issue of up to $500 million was approved, and declined to comment further. Credit Agricole, QInvest, Kuwait Finance House didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment, while Standard Chartered, Emirates NBD declined to comment. Dubai Islamic Bank could not immediately be reached, while nobody at Noor Bank was available to comment.
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