An agreement was signed yesterday between the Bahrain Stock Exchange (BSE) and The Commercial Real Estate Sukuk Co.to list its US $ 100 million Ijarah sukuk issue on BSE.
Fouad Rashid Director of BSE and Khalid Bucheeri Deputy Chairman of Commercial Real Estate Sukuk Co both signed the agreement. The signing was attended by Mr. Abdul Fatah Marafie, Chairman of the Commercial Real Estate Company- Kuwait.
The subscription on the 5 years sukuk closed on 5th May, 2005 and will be matured in July 2010. The issue which was rated at A- by Capital Intelligent has a coupon rate of 1.25% over LIBOR per annum payable semi-annually.
Mr. Bucheeri expressed his gratitude to officials at the Bahrain Monetary Agency and Bahrain Stock Exchange for their cooperation in approving and listing this issue on BSE. He added that the reputation of the Kingdom of Bahrain the leading Islamic financial center in the region and the support we received from the BMA were major factors to choose Bahrain to list the issue.
Mr. Abdull Fatah Marafie, Chairman of the Commercial Real Estate Company KSCC- Kuwait expressed his thanks to the Government of Bahrain with especial thanks to the BMA and BSE for supporting this sukuk issue.
Director of BSE Fouad Rashid praised the initiative taken by The Commercial Real Estate Sukuk Co. to list its sukuk on BSE, and expressed his gratitude to the efforts made by LMC to list these sukuk on BSE. Mr. Rashid hoped that more companies and institutions would consider issuing sukuk as one of the financing vehicles that can utilize in developing the Islamic capital market.
With the listing this issue, the number of Islamic sukuk and conventional bonds listed on BSE is 20 with an approximate total value of US $ 2.8 billion.
