Qatar Islamic Bank (“QIB”), priced a highly succesful USD 750 million 5-year RegS only Sukuk offering. The Sukuk was issued at par with an annual profit rate of 3.251% (payable semi-annually), representing a spread of 135bps over 5-year mid-swaps. The transaction represents QIB’s return to the public debt capital markets, following its USD 750mn Sukuk issuance in October 2015. Citi, Emirates NBD Capital, HSBC, Noor Bank, QInvest and Standard Chartered Bank acted as joint bookrunners and joint lead managers on the transaction.

Despite the busy issuance window, with a number of emerging market issuers pricing transactions on the same day and some of the GCC names on the road marketing potential transactions, QIB was able to take advantage of the resilience of the Sukuk market and the strong pent-up demand for quality issuers to successfully price a transaction. QIB was able to efficiently price the transaction, with its 2020 Sukuk seen trading in the context of 120bps over mid-swaps on the day; which highlights that the offering was priced with a negative new issue premium. In addition, the orderbook was 2.93x oversubscribed and achieved a balanced distribution profile.

"We are very pleased to see exceptional interest in our return to the public international debt capital markets. The highly successful offering demonstrates the confidence which international investors place in Qatar, its Islamic banking market and Qatar Islamic Bank, in specific. The transaction also further reasserts QIB’s status as a highly sophisticated Islamic issuer, having successfully accessed the debt capital markets for a number of landmark transactions,both in the public and private markets. The success of the Sukuk, which is attested to by the robust and healthy orderbook which closed at circa US$ 2.2 billion, highlights the continued strong support and confidence of both international and local investors in Qatar Islamic Bank’s strong underlying and unique credit fundamentals.”