Published: October 3, 2013
Sovereign returns to Islamic market with five-year issuance.
Turkey’s government is making its return to the sukuk market with a new US$1.25bn Islamic bond.
The sovereign, rated BBB- by Fitch and Baa3 by Moody’s, mandated HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank and Qatar’s QInvest to run its benchmark issuance, priced on Thursday.
The five-year paper was priced at 300 basis points over mid-swaps, tightened from initial guidelines of 325 basis points.
As our report in the latest issue of EMEA Finance highlights, this deal and a US$500mn issuance from Coca-Cola İçecek are welcome boosts to Turkey’s dealmaking market after a subdued summer.
Turkey entered the sukuk market in September 2012 with a US$1.5bn deal.