Participants during the webinar.
Doha: The International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM) announced the launch of the 11th Edition of its Annual Sukuk Report. The research report provides comprehensive information on global Sukuk issuances, types of issuers, Sukuk structures, case studies on select landmark issuances, articles on Sukuk market developments and prospects as well as country-focused reports on IIFM founding member countries and major Sukuk issuing jurisdictions.
The report finds that the year 2021 was another record year for Sukuk with issuances amounting to $188bn as compared to $175bn in 2020. A quarter of these Sukuk are international while the rest are domestic issuances. Although new jurisdictions are continuously coming up, the Sukuk market remains highly concentrated with the top four countries accounting for 88.5 percent of total issuances.
“In the last 20 years, 12,778 Sukuk were issued globally worth $ 1.6 trillion, of which two-thirds were issued by one country, namely Malaysia. But Turkiye, Gambia, Indonesia and Bahrain are the markets with the greatest number of issuances. When it comes to the amount, the regional picture is quite different.
In the GCC, the average Sukuk issue is about $390m, followed by $370m in Africa (excluding Gambia). In Asia and the Far East, the average issuance size is US$ 110 million,” said Khalid Hamad Al Hamad, Chairman of IIFM in his opening address.
He added, “Some of the positive developments recently are the issuances by relatively new entrants such as Bangladesh, Nigeria and some other countries and issuances of longer tenor Sukuk (15 years to 50 years) from Malaysia, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia in particular. Moreover, Bahrain as a pioneer of short-term Sukuk issuances and countries like Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia and Malaysia have continued to regularly issue short-term Sukuk”.
“The report aims to create a better understanding of Sukuk structure preferences, historical issuance trends and other essential information that is based on Sukuk issuance database of IIFM. The database includes all the public issuances (short-term and long-term) as well as private placements by various issuers to the extent possible,” said Mr. Ijlal Ahmed Alvi, Chief Executive Officer of IIFM.
He added, “I hope that Sukuk issuers, investors and market participants will benefit from IIFM’s Template Sukuk Al Ijarah and Sukuk Al Mudarabah documentation. Subject to market requirements, IIFM also plans to issue more Sukuk documentation standards to assist in the development of a unified Sukuk market.”
A virtual launch event was held to mark the publication of the report where a group of international experts representing the Central Bank of Bahrain, Islamic Development Bank, Bank Indonesia, Ministry of Finance-Indonesia, Labuan Financial Services Authority (Labuan FSA), International Financial Services Board (IFSB), International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation (IILM), Kuwait Finance House, Kuwait Finance House - Bahrain, CIMB Islamic Bank, Standard Chartered Bank Saadiq, DDCAP Group, London Stock Exchange Group, Bedford Row Capital, White & Case and Deloitte & Touche-Middle East spoke on Sukuk market trends and developments.
The webinar discussions focused on primary market issuances, Sukuk structures, secondary market activity, market conditions, Green & SRI Sukuk, impact of SDG’s implementation timeline and the evolving Sukuk landscape. There was also a special Country Focus session that included presentations on the Indonesian Sukuk market.
More than 350 market participants representing around 175 institutions based in over 35 countries registered for the webinar.
