PLUS Bhd’s record RM23.4 billion (US$7.3 billion) sukuk sale is attracting life insurers with higher-than-average yields and maturities of as much as 25 years.
The Malaysian company is taking over the nation’s biggest toll-road operator PLUS Expressways Bhd in the first leveraged buyout using syariah-compliant bonds. It seems that a portion of the total issue will be privately placed, at tenors of 20 to 25 years.
PLUS was set up by Malaysia’s biggest pension fund, the Employee Provident Fund, and government-owned UEM Group Bhd. to take over the highway assets of PLUS Expressways following their RM23 billion acquisition of the company.
PLUS Expressways Bhd, Malaysia’s largest toll-road operator, plans to sell RM 1 bn, 5-year Sukuk to help repay maturing debt and finance expansion projects. Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd and CIMB Islamic Bank Bhd supports the sale of the Sukuk. The company aims to raise RM 350 mn in the coming months to refinance debt maturing in June and to raise another RM 200 mn in the second half of the year to fund a road project in Indonesia.