HK steps up Islamic financing with $1b sukuk

Hong Kong recently issued $1 billion five-year sukuk. Pricing was aggressive, with the $1 billion sukuk pricing at Treasuries plus 35bp. The sharia-compliant note had a profit rate of 1.894%. However, the leads took comfort in the fact that there were solid anchor orders in place before launching the deal. Roadshows were held in key Islamic centres including Kuala Lumpur, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and London and much of those orders came from reverse enquiries from roadshows. The sukuk gathered an orderbook of $2 billion from 49 accounts. Given that it was an ultra-low yielding AAA product, banks treasuries took close to three quarters of the deal. Central banks and sovereign wealth funds took close to a quarter of the deal.