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Wednesday, 12 January 2022

Sukuks are back on the menu

This quarter could see our first corporate sukuk sale of the year: Palm Hills Developments (PHD) could close a EGP 3 bn sukuk sale this quarter, which is being managed by Contact Financial Holding’s (formerly Sarwa Capital) sukuk arm, Ayman Elsawy, head of Sarwa Promoting and Underwriting, told Enterprise, confirming a story yesterday in Al Borsa. The Financial Regulatory Authority still needs to give the sale the go ahead.

Advisors: The company has appointed Banque Misr and its investment arm Misr Capital as underwriters and promoters for the issuance. Our good friends at ALC Alieldean Weshahi & Partners are legal advisors, while KPMG Hazem Hassan is serving as auditor.

More sukuk sales ahead: Wadi Degla Developments’s EGP 2 bn sukuk sale — which we were expecting last summer — and Amer Group’s EGP 1.1 bn sale are expected to happen during the first half of the year, Elsawy confirmed to us.

This comes after a very quiet year for sukuk: By our count, 2021 only witnessed a single sukuk sale from Contact Financial Holding, which closed a sukuk issuance worth EGP 2.5 bn back in July.

IN OTHER DEBT NEWS-

SMART POLICY- The Central Bank of Egypt and Financial Regulatory Authority have launched a “responsible lending” initiative directed at all SME lenders they regulate, according to a FRA press release (pdf). The initiative, which comes in partnership with the World Bank, aims to educate SME lenders to better assess a borrower’s credit rating and ability to repay loans — and to offer them incentives to do the same. The WB has committed funding to train members of the Egyptian Microfinance Federation in best practices with curriculum from international institutions specialized in responsible finance.

Enterprise is a daily publication of Enterprise Ventures LLC, an Egyptian limited liability company (commercial register 83594), and a subsidiary of Inktank Communications. Summaries are intended for guidance only and are provided on an as-is basis; kindly refer to the source article in its original language prior to undertaking any action. Neither Enterprise Ventures nor its staff assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, whether in the form of summaries or analysis. © 2022 Enterprise Ventures LLC.

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