Malaysian state investment fund Khazanah Nasional took advantage of Hong Kong’s red-hot stock market to issue $320.8 million worth of sukuk exchangeable into Citic Securities’ H-shares, extending its recent practice of issuing Islamic exchangeable securities almost every year.
Khazanah has become the only source of equity-linked sukuk since 2010 when the last corporate issuer, YTL Corporation, issued a $350 million convertible note. As it stands, there is now no outstanding equity-linked sukuk in the market except Khazahah’s recent issues.
This prolonged drought of issuance makes Khazanah even more important in terms of providing liquidity in the Islamic sukuk market, as well as retaining Malaysia’s influence...