Golden Coast hires Standard & Poor’s for green sukuk rating

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Golden Coast for Hotels, Touristic Villages, and Entertainment Company, a subsidiary of Golden Pyramids Plaza, has hired Standard & Poor’s (S&P) to assess its creditworthiness for a planned green sukuk program worth EGP 7bn.

The company intends to use the proceeds of the green sukuk to finance its Soma Bay Resort project on the Red Sea coast, according to informed sources who spoke to Daily News Egypt.

S&P has already begun the rating process, but it may take some time due to the Egyptian market conditions. The company hopes to complete the issuance in the first half of 2024.

The sources also said that the company initially planned to issue conventional sukuk, but later decided to switch to green sukuk, making it the first green sukuk issuer in Egypt. The value of the program was also reduced from EGP 8bn to EGP 7bn.

Al-Ahly Pharos acted as the manager and coordinator of the issuance, while El-Derini’s office and its partners served as the legal advisors.

The first corporate sukuk in Egypt was issued in 2020 by Talaat Moustafa Group, with EFG Hermes as the manager. The sukuk were worth EGP 2bn. Since then, several other sukuk have been issued, including Ijara sukuk by Cairo Investment and Real Estate Development (CIRA) worth EGP 600m, Mudaraba sukuk by Contact Finance worth EGP 2.5bn, and Musharaka sukuk by Palm Hills worth EGP 3.25bn.