Hong Kong roadshow for debut sukuk

Hong Kong’s government will hold investor meetings next week for its maiden Islamic bond issue, a spokeswoman for the Hong Kong Monetary Authority said on Thursday.

A meeting will be held in Hong Kong on Monday before one in Singapore on Tuesday, Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday and meetings in Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi and London on Thursday.

The AAA-rated government earlier mandated HSBC, Standard Chartered, CIMB Group Holdings and National Bank of Abu Dhabi to arrange the issue.

The sukuk ijara issue is expected to be listed on the Hong Kong, Malaysia and Dubai bourses, the spokeswoman told Reuters.

“The key issuance parameters will be announced later. Currently, we expect the sukuk will be denominated in U.S. dollars and will have a tenor of five years.”

Hong Kong joins London and Luxembourg in seeking to boost its Islamic finance credentials and attract more business from cash-rich investors in the Gulf and southeast Asia.

Officials have previously said issuance size is expected to be about US$500 million to US$1 billion. That would be larger than the 200 million pounds ($332 million) raised by Britain in June in the first sovereign sukuk issue from a Western country, and the 200 million euros ($264 million) that Luxembourg plans to raise in its debut issue as early as next month.-Reuters