Pakistan to Issue Dollar Sukuk Bonds in Global Market

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan will soon issue seven-year Dollar Sukuk bonds in the global bond market, reported Bloomberg on Tuesday, January 18, 2022. Pakistan has authorized four international banking institutions, namely Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, and Standard Chartered Bank, as Joint Lead Managers (JLMs) and Joint Bookrunners (JBRs) to organize a series of investor calls for the issuance of a US Dollar-denominated seven-year Sukuk. The benchmark seven-year Sukuk offering will be US dollar-denominated and has been proposed under the Trust Certificate Issuance Programme of The Pakistan Global Sukuk Programme Co., which will follow market conditions. Sources from within the Ministry of Finance told ProPakistani that the government has set a target of raising Rs. 560 billion through the issuance of the bonds during the current financial year. They said that the issuance of these bonds will help in improving Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves and will adequately address the huge gap in the balance of payments. The proposed Sukuk denomination comes only a month after ProPakistani reported that Pakistan was expecting over $2 billion from various sources within two months. Reliable sources at the time from within the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) told ProPakistani that the central bank would soon confirm the receipt of over $1 billion in confirmed credit through respective issues of Sukuk and Eurobonds. The government had previously approved the borrowing of $3 billion through Eurobonds and Sukuk. It had already obtained $1 billion in debt in July through the sale of a three-tranche Eurobond that had sold for $2.5 billion in March.