Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, group chairman and CEO of DP World, rang the market-opening bell at Nasdaq Dubai Wednesday to celebrate the listing of a $1.5 billion perpetual Sukuk. According to a press release issued by Nasdaq Dubai on Wednesday, DP World, the Dubai-based provider of worldwide smart end-to-end supply chain logistics, will use the capital raised by the Sukuk for general corporate and growth purposes including refinancing debt. This latest listing marks the largest outstanding emerging markets US dollar corporate subordinated hybrid, the largest hybrid Sukuk offering, and is DP World's inaugural perpetual issuance. DP World is the largest UAE debt issuer on Nasdaq Dubai, the region's international exchange, where its Sukuk and conventional bonds listings now total over $10 billion. Bin Sulayem said, "Our latest Sukuk received strong demand from regional and international investors, demonstrating their confidence in DP World's global business activities and growth strategy and enabling us to achieve competitive pricing. "We are delighted to further strengthen our debt listings relationship with Nasdaq Dubai as the region's international exchange, which provides our issuances with excellent global visibility and close links to investors around the world." Essa Kazim, governor of Dubai International Financial Centre, secretary-general of Dubai Islamic Economy Development Centre and chairman of Dubai Financial Market, said, "This significant collaboration between leading Dubai institutions reflects their ability to jointly utilize their high level of expertise to achieve an effective financing outcome that meets the needs of stakeholders. "DP World's latest Sukuk listing emphasizes the continued expansion of the emirate's position as the global Capital of Islamic economy." Dubai is one of the largest global centers for Sukuk listings by value, currently totaling $72.59 billion. Abdul Wahed Al Fahim, chairman of Nasdaq Dubai, said, "This listing by DP World underlines the very strong activity that we are seeing in the Sukuk sector as we significantly expand our outreach to issuers. "The value of new Sukuk listings so far this year on the exchange has risen to $11.4 billion, higher than in any previous year during the same period, and up 80 per cent from $6.35 billion in the same period last year." The number of new Sukuk listings so far this year on Nasdaq Dubai has doubled to 14 from seven in the same period last year. Hamed Ali, chief executive of Nasdaq Dubai, said, "We are delighted to reinforce our longstanding cooperation with DP World by welcoming this Sukuk listing to the exchange, in order to provide further support for the company's successful regional and international growth and development. "As Nasdaq Dubai expands as a capital markets hub that attracts issuers and investors from around the world, we will strengthen our focus on attracting issuances of Sukuk and a wide range of other products." — WAM
