IslamicFinance.de

Sukuk issuance by governments around the world is expanding, helping to bring Islamic finance into the mainstream. However, the sovereign issues are not encouraging sukuk sales by companies. Last year saw debut sukuk issues by the governments of Britain, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, Senegal and South Africa. Hong Kong tapped the market for a second time this week with a $1 billion deal. Since the five debut sovereign sales, no company has issued sukuk in those five economies. As a result, sovereign and quasi-sovereign issuers accounted for 85 percent of the $113.9 billion of sukuk deals done globally in 2014, and that proportion shows no sign of changing.