Rise in sovereign issuances in GCC cited

Abdulwahab Al-Roshood

KUWAIT CITY, Jan 7: Kuwait Finance House Group (KFH-Group) volume traded in the sukuk market reached $16.6 billion for the year 2017 ie a growth of 45% over the same period last year. Such volume is yet another outstanding achievement to be added to KFH record as a primary dealer and a regional and global sukuk market maker.This also confirms the efficiency of KFH performance and the confidence of investors, not to mention the key role of the bank in activating the sukuk market. Group Chief Treasury Officer at KFH, Abdulwahab Essa Al-Roshood said that KFH occupied a great share of the secondary market sukuk trading, indicating this volume of trading has contributed significantly to the increase of liquidity and to the support of Islamic financial markets.He added, in a press release, that KFH managed in 2017 to achieve remarkable development in the sukuk market at the regional and global levels as it motivated and encouraged a number of conventional and Islamic financial institutions to enter the market and take part in the trading.The surge in KFH-Group traded sukuk volume in 2017 is considerable owing to the increase in sovereign issuances in the GCC governments. One of the main issuers is the KSA with sukuk issues reaching total of $9bln in which KFH became a market maker for this sukuk.Oman Government is another big player which entered the sukuk market with a $2bln issue. These issues reflected positively on KFH total volume. Al-Roshood reiterated the focus on the Group efforts, indicating that managing KFH Group efforts contributed in reinforcing leadership in the sukuk market, especially that the Group banks are spread over key regions including Turkey, Malaysia and Bahrain.Al-Roshood stated that sukuk are the most significant and powerful low risk investment financing tool which contributes effectively to the process of encountering liquidity crises. sukuk are characterized as instruments of high liquidity, active secondary market, flexibility and good returns. sukuk represent a significant investment outlet for banks and an effective tool to manage liquidity in accordance with CBK regulations. sukuk contribute significantly in financing income generating and productive projects, thus activate economic growth.It is worth noting that the International Islamic Liquidity Management (IILM) has recently announced (KFH) officially as a “Top Primary Dealer” for the IILM sukuk Program in FY 2017. This ranking is based on the total allocated amount for the 15 issuances this year accumulating a total of circa $10bln, where KFH occupied around 30% of it.