DOHA: QIIB CEO Dr Abdulbasit Al Shaibei (pictured) said yesterday the bank is weighing options whether to go private or public placements regarding the issuance of its previously announced sukuk issaunce. He said the Bank is still working on the numbers.
Recently, the bank announced it was waiting for the ‘right time’ to hit the international market with the issuance of $500m sukuk. Private placement, also known as non-public offering, is a funding round of securities which are sold not through a public offering, but rather through a private offering, mostly to a small number of chosen investors.
Speaking on the sidelines of the opening of QIIB’s new branch at The Mall, Dr Abdulbasit told The Peninsula the bank is yet to decide whether to go private placing or public. “We have just completed the third quarter and is working on the numbers. We will go to the market, once we update our numbers.”
Dr Abdulbasit said the bank has also not decided on the exact date on the issuance...”The rates are on the higher side. It will take some time to finalize the figure before we go to the market consultants”, he said.
The Bank is primarily planning to tap the Asian and European markets On the pricing and the market timing, he said there is nothing called right timing in the market. The market is in a rate hike horizon. Two more hikes are expected from Fed in 2019. “If the funding cost is higher, we have to adjust to the right financing, right size and right tenor,” he said.
The QIIB earlier said the lead arrangers of the issuance would be QNB, Standard Chartered and some Malaysian Banks and the tenor would be five year.
The bank issued its first sukuk in 2012 for $700 and it was matured in October 2017. QIIB’s $2bn Trust Certificate Issuance programme has already been approved by the the UK Financial Conduct Authority (the FCA) and is being admitted to the official list of the FCA and the London Stock Exchange.
