Saudi Arabia's Sukuk selling crosses SAR 3.95 bn

Last month, the ministry sold 5.0 billion riyals of domestic Sukuk.


Reuters | Updated: 27-05-2018 12:41 IST | Created: 27-05-2018 12:38 IST
Saudi Arabia's Sukuk selling crosses SAR 3.95 bn
Sukuk is an Islamic financial certificate, similar to a bond in Western finance. (Image Credit: Wikipedia)
  • Country:
  • Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia's finance ministry sold 3.95 billion riyals (USD1.05 billion) of domestic Sukuk in its monthly sale by re-opening an issue originally made last month, the ministry said.

It sold 3.35 billion riyals of five-year Sukuk, 350 million riyals of seven-year and 250 million riyals of 10-year. Last month, the ministry sold 5.0 billion riyals of domestic Sukuk.

Sukuk is an Islamic financial certificate, similar to a bond in Western finance, that complies with Sharia Islamic religious law.

Since the traditional Western interest-paying bond structure is not permissible, the issuer of a sukuk sells an investor group a certificate and then uses the proceeds to purchase an asset, of which the investor group has partial ownership.

The issuer must also make a contractual promise to buy back the bond at a future date at par value.

Sukuks represent aggregate and undivided shares of ownership in a tangible asset as it relates to a specific project or a specific investment activity.

An investor in a Sukuk, therefore, does not own a debt obligation owed by the bond issuer but instead owns a piece of the asset that's linked to the investment.

This means that Sukuk holders, unlike bondholders, receive a portion of the earnings generated by the associated asset.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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