General Manager, Kuwait Treasury at Kuwait Finance House KFH Abdulwahab Al-Roshood said that KFH has participated in the International Islamic Liquidity Management IILM USD 860 mln sukuk issuance as a primary dealer. He added that KFH is considered as the largest participant among others, not to mention it is the largest in terms of numbers and volume of deals in secondary sukuk market.
He revealed that the IILM has recently issued the first sukuk issuance for 3 months. He went on to say that sukuk issued by the IILM enjoys the privilege of being short term, rated as the short- term highest credit rating A-1 by the international Standard & Poor’s. Participation in IILM sukuk contributes in enhancing asset quality for participants, not to mention that IILM sukuk is seen as a source of good income due to its rewarding returns compared to its short term periods.
Moreover, Al-Roshood explained that IILM is a new corporation based in Malaysia by 9 central banks as well as Islamic Development Bank in October 2010. The goal beyond establishing such corporation lies on the deployment of short-term Sovereign sukuk ranging from one month to one year with USD 2 billion program volume. The Central Banks participated from the following countries; Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Indonesia, Nigeria, Luxemburg, Moriches, Malaysia, Turkey.
Al-Roshood expressed his confidence that KFH’s participation of the corporation’s businesses since establishment will add value to its efforts and its role in sukuk market because KFH is renowned in this field. KFH has issued several sukuk regionally, and globally, in addition to its participation in arranging global deals to governments and corporations which contributed in strengthening sukuk’s part as a means of finance that can be a legitimate alternative to bonds, noting as end of 2013 the total of sukuk issuance volume reached USD119.7bln.
Meanwhile, Chief Dealer-Debt Capital Market, Mohammad Al-Dwaila said that Financial Islamic Markets need such kind of short-term sukuk to cover the existing gab between short-term Murabaha and long-term sukuk.
Furthermore, he added that KFH’s participation among large global banks as primary dealer confirms its leading role in sukuk market in the regional and global levels, not to mention its part in employing its capabilities in this field to serve the Islamic financial industry and open new horizons ahead.