Dar Al Arkan taps capital markets
dubai — Yousef bin Abdullah Al Shelash, chairman of Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Development Company, rang the market opening bell to celebrate the listing of a $500 million sukuk on Nasdaq Dubai on Sunday.
The listing provides support for Dar Al Arkan’s financing and capital raising strategy to support the growth of real estate activities across Saudi Arabia, including commercial real estate and integrated residential communities, as well as expansion of its international developments, including the ‘I Love Florence Tower’, a cobranded residential tower in Downtown Dubai announced in December 2017.
The 5-year sukuk was more than 2 times oversubscribed and received significant interest from Middle Eastern, European and Asian investors. It brings Dar AlArkan’s total sukuk value listed on Nasdaq Dubai to $1.85 billion, following 3 other sukuk listings by the company on the region’s international exchange in 2014 and 2017.
The ceremony took place in the presence of Essa Kazim, governor of Dubai International Financial Centre, secretary-general of Dubai Islamic Economy Development Centre and chairman of Dubai Financial Market, and senior representatives of Dar Al Arkan, as well as Abdul Wahed Al Fahim, chairman of Nasdaq Dubai, and Hamed Ali, chief executive of Nasdaq Dubai.
Al Shelash said: “Our latest successful sukuk issuance supports our activities throughout Saudi Arabia under the National Transformation Programme as part of the ‘Vision 2030’ strategy, as well as the international expansion that we began in 2017. Our listing on Nasdaq Dubai provides us with excellent links and visibility to investors in our own region and around the world as well as a respected listing platform regulated to international standards.”
Kazim said: “This listing by one of the Middle East’s leading real estate development companies underlines the close Islamic capital market ties between the UAE and Saudi Arabia. We will further strengthen our relationships with Shariah-compliant entities in GCC countries to underpin Dubai’s expansion as the global Capital of Islamic Economy.”
Dar Al Arkan’s assets in Saudi Arabia include a 37 million square metre land bank in Jeddah, Riyadh and Mecca.
Al Fahim said: “We are delighted
Our latest successful sukuk issuance supports our activities throughout Saudi Arabia
Yousef bin Abdullah Al Shelash, Chairman of Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Development Company
to make our comprehensive exchange infrastructure available to Dar Al Arkan in order to support its capital raising needs as it pursues its real estate activities. Nasdaq Dubai will maintain its strategy of attracting high quality issuers of sukuk and other Islamic asset classes across a wide range of industry sectors.”
The chief executive of Nasdaq Dubai added: “We congratulate Dar Al Arkan’s team for concluding a successful transaction and listing and are committed to strengthening our relationship with the company and the investors in its sukuk through our post-listing relationship. As an international platform, we are preparing to expand our support for a range of issuers in Saudi Arabia and other regional and international countries.”
Dubai’s sukuk listings have now reached a total nominal value of $58.815 billion, the highest amount of any listing venue in the world.