Business

Saturday August 15, 2009

Petronas bonds make debut

By YEOW POOI LING


KUALA LUMPUR: Petroliam Nasional Bhd’s (Petronas) US$1.5bil sukuk and US$3bil conventional bonds made their debut on Bursa Malaysia and Labuan International Financial Exchange (LFX) respectively yesterday.

Both securities have a tenure of five years and 10 years respectively.

Petronas’ sukuk is structured based on the globally accepted syariah principle of Ijarah (leasing).

Cagamas MBS, meanwhile, listed all the outstanding sukuk and bonds issued under its five residential mortgage-backed securitisation transactions, amounting to RM4bil of sukuk and RM6bil of bonds on Bursa yesterday.

Both sukuk and bonds have tenures of between three and 20 years.

Cagamas’ sukuk is based on the accepted syariah principle of Musharakah (profit and loss sharing).

In a statement yesterday, Bursa said the double listings of sukuk and conventional bonds by Petronas and Cagamas were the first to be listed on the exchange under the “exempt regime basis”, which is one of the new listing requirements that took effect on Aug 3.

The “exempt regime basis” allows the listing of sukuk and debt securities on the exchange by both listed and non-listed issuers but these instruments would not be quoted or traded.

Listed sukuk and bonds are meant to offer institutions or high net worth investors an alternative investment product with enhanced transparency.

“The listing of the sukuk on the exchange further strengthens our position as a hub for Islamic finance globally,” said Bursa chief executive officer Datuk Yusli Mohamed Yusoff.

Malaysia is the world’s largest sukuk issuer, with more than 60% of outstanding global sukuk.

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