Bahrain sukuk increased to $750 million, pricing at 350 bps over 5-year Treasuries; other news

Bahrain increased the size of its dollar-denominated $500 million sukuk to $750 million and it is expected to be priced at 350 basis points above US Treasuries of similar five-year maturities. The managing director of Dubai-based Algebra Capital which invested in the sukuk was disappointed at the pricing of the sukuk commenting that "It would have been better had they left some juice in there to attract a wider audience". An article describes the impact of the sukuk and also provides a summary of the other developments in the sukuk market including sukuk funds and the CBB recurring sukuk al-salam and al-ijara issuances, which have seen greater oversubscription recently.

Other News

• Australia is considering attracting more Islamic finance to Sydney to recover from the global recession. LM Australia Alif Fund was recently launched. It is an on-shore Islamic real estate fund.
  
• There is an interesting interview with the managing director of State Street's Doha office, Rod Ringrow.
  
• An Indonesia oil company cancelled a (small) planned sukuk issuance in favor of an expanded conventional bond issuance. No reason was provided.
  
• The Saudi exchange Tadawul, is launching a bond and sukuk market.
  
• A study by the Islamic International Ratings Agency (IIRA) found that Islamic banks "face challenges in managing their liquidity in adverse markets" mostly due to holding less liquid assets although most Islamic banks have "adequate liquidity".
  
• Islamic mortgage companies Amlak and Tamweel need a total of AED 18.7 billion including AED 5.7 billion by June 30 to meet their commitments according to an article in Emirates Business 24/7. The problems facing the two institutions are largely caused by a severe asset/liability mismatch following the drying up of liquidity particularly securitizations.
  
• The CBB sukuk al-ijara received a preliminary A rating from Standard & Poor's in line with the country's sovereign rating.
  
• An Islamic finance training program was launched in Wales at the Cardiff University Business School.