Damac’s $650m sukuk oversubscribed
Dubai, April 3, 2014
Damac Real Estate Development, a leading developer of high-end and luxury residential property in the Middle East, has issued a $650 million five-year Regulation ‘S’ senior unsecured sukuk, which was oversubscribed four times.
The sukuk will mature in April 2019 at a profit rate of 4.97 per cent, said a company statement.
It will be listed on the Nasdaq Dubai and Irish Stock Exchange with effect from April 9, it said.
Standard and Poor’s has assigned the sukuk a rating of ‘BB‘ in line with Damac’s corporate rating.
The order book for the issue was $2.7 billion. The sukuk was placed with a broad range of institutional investors across Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
The proceeds of the offering is intended to be used for general corporate purposes and for the acquisition of land plots to strengthen and extend the company’s development pipeline, said the statement.
Hussain Sajwani, Damac’s executive chairman and CEO, said: “The success of this offering, which has been heavily oversubscribed, is another strong endorsement of the market’s confidence in Damac and its growth plans and allows us to further diversify our investor base and improve capital efficiency, in line with our tight risk management practices.
“In addition, it provides us with sufficient capital to continue our growth trajectory in the medium term in order to maintain our leadership position in the luxury real estate sector.” - TradeArabia News Service
