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| Source: Nasdaq Dubai. Yousef Bin Abdullah Al-Shalash, Chairman of Dar Al-Arkan Real Estate Development Company of Saudi Arabia, rang the market-opening bell at Nasdaq Dubai to celebrate the listing of a US$600 million sukuk. |
- Listing supports further expansion by one of Middle East’s largest real estate developers
- Dubai is one of the world’s largest venues for sukuk listings, currently valued at US$64.3 billion
Yousef Bin Abdullah Al-Shalash, Chairman of Dar Al-Arkan Real Estate Development Company of Saudi Arabia, has rung the market-opening bell at Nasdaq Dubai to celebrate the listing of a US$600 million sukuk on October 16, 2019.
The listing supports the accelerating development activities of Dar Al-Arkan, one of the Middle East’s major real estate developers, including flagship integrated residential communities across Saudi Arabia, as well as its residential I Love Florence Tower in Downtown Dubai.
This issue was Dar Al Arkan’s 10th issue since 2007 and the 6th tranche of its current US$2 billion programme. The issue is for a five-year term due in February 2025 with a coupon rate of 6.75%. The five-year sukuk was more than 2.5 times oversubscribed and received significant interest from Middle Eastern, European and Asian investors.
It brings Dar Al-Arkan’s total sukuk value on Nasdaq Dubai to US$1.6 billion. Two other sukuk worth US$500 million each were listed in 2017 and 2018.
Al-Shalash said: “With over 1.5 billion US dollars of subscriptions, our latest sukuk issuance was very well received by the market. It is a testament to our strong relationship with the global debt capital markets and a big vote of confidence from investors in our stewardship of their capital. The funds raised provide us with the capital to dynamically invest in our business activities across Saudi Arabia as we see the market conditions improving and prepare for the next upcycle.
"As the region’s international exchange, Nasdaq Dubai provides our sukuk with high visibility to regional and international investors as well as an efficient listing platform regulated to international standards.”
HE Essa Kazim, Governor of Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC), Secretary General of the Dubai Islamic Economy Development Centre (DIEDC) and Chairman of Dubai Financial Market (DFM) said: “Dar Al-Arkan’s new listing further strengthens the close Islamic capital markets ties between the UAE and Saudi Arabia, which greatly benefit issuers, investors and the wider economy.
"We will continue to develop our relationships with shari’ah-compliant entities across the GCC to underpin Dubai’s expansion as the global capital of Islamic economy under the initiative launched by HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the VP and PM of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.”
Equity index provider MSCI added Dar Al-Arkan to its Emerging Markets Index following KSA's inclusion in the index in May 2019. Dar Al-Arkan was also one of 12 Saudi-listed companies for which Nasdaq Dubai launched futures contracts in January 2019.
Abdul Wahed Al Fahim, Chairman of Nasdaq Dubai, said: “We are delighted to deepen our relationship with one of the Middle East’s largest real estate developers and its diverse sukuk investors. This listing underlines the increasing success of Nasdaq Dubai’s strategy of attracting high quality issuers of sukuk across a wide range of industry sectors.”
Dar Al-Arkan’s assets include about 12.4 million sq m of projects under development. The company has handed over 15,000 residential units in KSA and holds a land bank with a book value of circa SR17 billion.
Hamed Ali, Chief Executive of Nasdaq Dubai said: “Our comprehensive exchange infrastructure including our post-listing services is positioned to support Dar Al-Arkan as it pursues its real estate strategy for the benefit of businesses and individuals. We are preparing to expand our support for the capital raising needs of a range of issuers in Saudi Arabia and other regional and international countries.”
The company’s latest sukuk underlines Dubai’s role as one of the largest global centres for sukuk listings by value with a current total of US$64.3 billion. UAE issuers account for 45% of these by value and 55% are from issuers based in other countries.