Issuance of bonds, sukuks in GCC up 10%
The Markaz report highlighted the trends followed by bonds and sukuk issuances in the GCC region during the first half of 2018.
Times News Service
MUSCAT: The aggregate primary issuance of bonds and sukuk by Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) entities, including central bank local issuances and GCC sovereign and corporate issuances, in the first half of 2018 increased by 9.64 per cent to US$95.25 billion compared with the same period in 2017, a new report revealed.
Qatar led the GCC in terms of total value raised from issuances, according to the Kuwait Financial Centre (Markaz) in its recent research report, “GCC Bonds and Sukuk Market Survey.”
The Markaz report highlighted the trends followed by bonds and sukuk issuances in the GCC region during the first half of 2018.
Central bank local issuances (CBLIs) are fixed income securities issued by GCC central banks in local currencies and with short maturities for the purpose of regulating levels of domestic liquidity.
In the first half of 2018, a total of $32.77 billion was raised by GCC central banks, namely the Central Banks of Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Oman, which are the only central banks in the region that make information available to the public.
The Central Bank of Kuwait raised the highest amount, with KD4.77 billion ($15.88 billion) through 22 issuances, representing 48.59 per cent of the total amount raised by CBLIs. This was followed by the Central Bank of Bahrain, which raised a total of BD2.99 billion ($7.95 billion). up by 68.4 per cent compared to the $10.31 billion raised in the first half of 2017, making up 27.76 per cent of the market.
UAE-based issuers raked in $15.39 billion during the first half of 2018, up 21.9 per cent compared to the $12.6 billion raised in the same period in 2017 and representing 24.6 per cent of the total market.
Total issuances by Kuwaiti entities dropped to $0.20 billion, representing 0.3 per cent of the total market, a huge drop compared to the $10.50 billion raised in first half of 2017, which was 22.4 per cent of the total market.
Meanwhile, Omani entities raised a total of $8.63 billion through seven issuances, representing 13.8 per cent of the market. This marks a 13.2 per cent increase over the $7.62 billion raised in the first half of 2017. Bahraini entities were responsible for 1.6 per cent of the total issuances, raising $1 billion through a single issue.