Floating rate sukuk and SHAPE Financial

"Sharjah Islamic Bank's global Sukuk debut secures $225 million", MENA Report, October 17, 2006

The sukuk are the first from Sharjah Islamic Bank and are floating profit rate sukuk with the rate tied to the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) plus 65 basis points. The sukuk will mature in five years. This article, unlike many articles on sukuk issues breaks down the purchasers by region: 41 percent went to European or Asian investors while 59 percent went to Middle Eastern investors. It would have been interesting, however, to see how much demand there was from Europe out of that 41 percent.

"SHAPE Financial Corp. assigned as Sharia Advisor for the world's first GCC-oriented Sukuk fund", AMEInfo, October 17, 2006

Virginia-based Islamic finance advisory firm SHAPE Financial Corp has been selected to advise on Shari'ah-compliance for the Sanad Sukuk Fund. The Fund will invest in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) area sukuk. Increasing the secondary market trading in sukuk is very important for sustaining the high growth of sukuk issues by making them more liquid financial instruments than they are now, where they are often held to maturity. The minimum subscription is currrently US$100,000 once the fund is launched in November 2006 and redemptions are allowed on a quarterly basis.