Global sukuk issuance hit USD 13.4 billion in April

KUWAIT– Kuwait Finance House (KFH) announced on Friday(May 9th) the global primary sukuk market has begun 2Q 2014 on a solid footing as the month of April has produced a new issuances volume of more than USD 13.4 billion, making it the best performing month in 2014 year-to-date (YTD).

The bank said in a statement that the new sukuk issuances volume in April 2014 exceeds the previous YTD high of USD 11.2 bln in March by almost 20 percent. The month saw a welcoming return of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) sukuk issuers who expanded their volume with issuances totalling more than USD four bln after remaining largely absent in March when total GCC issuances amounted to less than USD 185 mln (excluding the Islamic Development Bank’s USD 1.5 bln issuance), KFH added in the statement which was carried by Kuwait News Agency.

Issuances by GCC based obligors helped shore up the share of corporate sukuks which accounted for USD 2.4 bln of the total issuance volume in April, registering a 65 percent increase compared to the USD 1.45 bln volume in March.
However proportionately, the market continued to be heavily driven by the sovereign and quasi-sovereign issuers who collectively accounted for approximately 82 percent of the issuance volume in April (Mar14: 87 percent).

Overall, April 2014’s volume was the third most performing on a monthly basis over the last 12 months, it noted.
Analysing YTD, 4M14’s volume now amounts to USD 44.5 bln which is in fact 1.6 percent higher than the USD 43.8 bln volume in 4M13. At such a rate, the prospects are immensely bright and the global primary sukuk market is highly expected to once again surpass the USD 100 bln mark in new sukuk issuances volume this year. (QNA)