KUALA LUMPUR — Feb. 21, 2018: Malaysia maintained its position as the world’s largest sukuk issuer in 2017, accounting for US$36.5 billion (RM142.7 billion).
It was followed by Saudi Arabia (US$31.7 billion), Indonesia (US$6.9 billion) and Qatar (US$5.6 billion), RAM Rating Services said in a statement today.
The volume of global sukuk issuance last year exceeded RAM Ratings’ projection of US$85 billion-US$90 billion, having swelled 33.6 per cent year-on-year to US$97.3 billion (2016: US$72.9 billion).
This was bolstered by a 144.5 per cent or US$46.6 billion spike in issuances from Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
In 2016, Malaysia also topped the list with US$29.9 billion.
Quasi-government heavyweights, led by DanaInfra Nasional, Public Sector Home Financing Board and Prasarana Malaysia, supported Malaysia’s local-currency (LCY) sukuk issuance in 2017.
The LCY sukuk issuance amounted to RM168.7 billion last year, also surpassing RAM’s full-year projection of RM100 billion-RM120 billion.
“We anticipate DanaInfra’s sukuk issuance to increase significantly in 2018, driven by the funding requirements for the MRT Line 2 and the Pan Borneo Highway,” said RAM’s Head of Islamic Finance, Ruslena Ramli. — Bernama
