DUBAI: Dubai Investments aims to raise $300m from a debut sale of Islamic bonds by the end of 2013 after delaying a similar plan early this year due to rising interest rates, its chief executive said.
The conglomerate, which has interests in several sectors including property and manufacturing, had in April picked Citigroup Inc, Nomura and J P Morgan Chase & Co to help arrange the sale.
“We are in the final stage of application to the various markets. I’m hoping that it should be done this year,” Khalid bin Kalban said yesterday.
“This (sukuk sale) is delayed because interest rates climbed up. We are targetting a specific interest rate. Once we achieve it we will go into the market, otherwise there’s no point. It has come down to lower than the level we expected.”
The company, whose manufacturing business was hit by political unrest in the Gulf Arab region, has been eyeing a sukuk issue since last year to finance expansion of some manufacturing units and repay debt.
Kalban reiterated that plans to offload stakes in two of the conglomerate’s units were still on track despite an apparent delay - in April, he said the sales would be completed by September-end and that combined they would raise about Dh700m ($190.58m).
Reuters
