Cr. Agricole sees $3bln in Islamic bond issuance

Cr. Agricole sees $3bln in Islamic bond issuance

The deals will include the long-awaited $1 billion Islamic bond, or sukuk, to finance the Jubail refinery.

October 11, 2010 1:33 by Reuters

Credit Agricoleexpects to close two or three Islamic bond deals worth up to $3 billion in the next six months, the head of its Islamic finance unit said on Monday.

Simon Eedle said the deals will include the long-awaited $1 billion Islamic bond, or sukuk, to finance the Jubail refinery — a joint venture between state-owned Saudi Aramco and France’s Total .

He said the other two deals will be benchmark offerings. Benchmark issues are usually around $500 million.

“We would be disappointed to not close two or three deals in the next six months,” he said.

Eedle added that the larger Gulf sukuk market will likely see at least $10 billion in issuances, led by financials, in the next six months. He said most issuances will come from high credit-quality markets such as Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

“We know that there are plenty of deals mandated in the region and deals to be won,” he said.

Eedle added that the time is also right for sukuk issuances outside of the Gulf region and he expects more investment money from the West to tap the Islamic finance market in 2011.

(Reporting by Shaheen Pasha; Editing by David Cowell)