Emirates Islamic Bank (EIB), a unit of leading regional bank Emirates NBD, said it has successfully completed the issuance of $500 million sukuk certificates, maturing in 2017 off the $1,000 million trust certificate issuance programme.

The programme, which is guaranteed by Emirates NBD, has been rated A3 by Moody’s and A+ by Fitch. The certificates pay a profit rate to investors of $5 year mid-swaps + 350bps (4.718 per cent), said a statement from EmiratesNBD.

Citigroup, Emirates NBD Capital, HSBC Bank, National Bank of Abu Dhabi, Royal Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered Bank were joint lead managers and bookrunners on the transaction.

The transaction structure was a Sukuk Al Musharaka based on Sharikat Al Melk (co-ownership), with the certificates being a senior obligation of EIB.

The investor meetings were held in the first week of January with roadshows by EIB and EmiratesNBD in Middle East, Asia and Europe.

Senior officials of both the banks were at the roadshows to explain the group’s credit story during the investor meetings and group presentations. The roadshows were very well attended by both Islamic and conventional investors.

The transaction closed within 12 hours from the release of initial pricing thoughts, with strong demand from regional and international investors, the EmiratesNBD said in a statement.

The syndicate and marketing strategies resulted in an order book that was oversubscribed three times. The order book was very well diversified with investor participation from Asia (29 per cent), Europe (14 per cent) and Middle East (57 per cent).

Within the final order book, banks accounted for 61 per cent, fund managers (24 per cent), insurance and pension funds (9 per cent), private banks (5 per cent) and others one per cent.

Commenting on the transaction, the EmiratesNBD said this successful sukuk issue will result in $500 million of new five-year funding for the bank.

'It was very well received in the market, as is evident by the oversubscription, tight pricing and depth of investor base. This issue also demonstrates the confidence that the global capital markets have in the Emirates NBD Group,' he added.-TradeArabia News Service