DUBAI - SHUAA Capital today announced that along with other parties, it had successfully priced and issued GFH Financial Groups five-year sukuk at $300 million. The sale of the sukuk, held 21st January, was more than twice oversubscribed, with orders of over $700 million.

Mustafa Kheriba, Deputy CEO and Group Head of Asset Management at SHUAA, commented, "SHUAA played an integral role in the successful issuance of the GFH Financial Groups five-year sukuk. For SHUAA, this is another landmark deal that demonstrates the Groups strong investment banking capabilities and experience from having managed similar high-profile capital market transactions."

In the past 12 months, SHUAA has been mandated on several sukuk issuances, including the $135 million dollar-denominated five-year sukuk for Jabal Omar Development Company and the $135 million sukuk for The First Group. This brings the total amounts raised for SHUAA-led sukuk to more than $500 million in the past year, making it the most active non-bank advisor in the Middle East for sukuk issuances.

Hisham Ahmed Al Rayes, CEO of GFH Financial Group, the Bahrain-based Islamic investment bank, said, "This is another milestone enabling us to tap debt capital markets for the first time since 2008. The strong interest in our sukuk is a result of GFHs robust fundamentals and strong turnaround in 2016, following a strategic investment made by the Abu Dhabi Financial Group. SHUAA has been instrumental in managing the sukuk issuance from start to finish, resulting in its oversubscription by more than two times."

GFHs Board of Directors received shareholder approval on 29th December, 2019 to issue the shariah-compliant bond to fund the Groups growth and diversification plans.

Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2020.