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28 March 2024

Majid Al Futtaim announces sukuk roadshow

Published
By Reuters

Dubai's Majid Al Futtaim will begin meeting investors on Sunday ahead of a potential Islamic bond, or sukuk issue, a statement from the lead managers said on Tuesday.

The mall developer, which is the sole franchise for Carrefour in the Gulf, will meet investors in Abu Dhabi and Dubai on January 29, before a second day of roadshows in London and Kuala Lumpur on January 30, it said.

Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank , HSBC and Standard Chartered are the lead managers for the potential transaction, which would be the company's first debt capital markets issue.

The company has been eyeing global debt markets for several months, completing a series of roadshows for a conventional bond in June but not going ahead with a print because of the impact of market volatility on pricing.

It then set up a sukuk programme to have the option to tap Islamic liquidity and take advantage of healthy demand for sharia-compliant assets amid ongoing global risk aversion.

A senior executive told Reuters in November the company hoped to raise between $350 million and $500 million from its debut sukuk offering.

This would be the first issuance by a private corporate firm in the Gulf and is regarded as a vanguard for other private sector companies in the region who, hit by limited liquidity in the loan market, are searching for new finance streams.

The unlisted firm raised $1 billion loan from a group of banks in July which was used for refinancing of a $1 billion loan maturing later this year.

MAF's revenues grew by 10 percent year over year to 18.7 billion dirhams ($5.09 billion) last year and its net debt was around 7.5 billion dirhams.

The developer expects to open around 15 new Carrefour hypermarkets and about 25 to 30 new supermarkets in 2012.