25 Feb, 2017Africa Finance Corporation carries out USD 150 million Sukuk transaction on Nasdaq Dubai Murabaha platform

Transaction supported successful Sukuk issuance to global investors

·AFC is first African issuer to make use of exchange’s Islamic financing platform

has carried out a 150 million US dollar Islamic financing transaction on the M

Following high levels of investor interest, the initial target of 100 million US dollars was more than twice oversubscribed, resulting in the transaction being upsized to 150 million US dollars and a final order book of approximately 230 million US dollars.

The Sukuk is AFC’s second foray into Islamic finance; the corporation accepted a 50 million US dollar 15-year line of financing from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) in 2015 to finance Islamic Finance-compliant projects located across the numerous African IDB member countries.

AFC’s Sukuk, issued on January 24, 2017, is the highest rated USD Sukuk issuance from an African entity. The privately placed Murabaha Sukuk was awarded an A3 senior unsecured rating by Moody's Investors Service.

Significant advantages offered by the platform over alternative Murabaha channels include fixed price certificates with no spread. The platform utilises Sharia’a-compliant Certificates that are held in Nasdaq Dubai’s Central Securities Depository (CSD).