Arabian Centres completes issuance of dollar-denominated sukuk worth $650 mln

Logo of Arabian Centres 

Arabian Centres Co. completed the issuance of dollar-denominated Shariah-compliant sukuk, with settlement to take place on April 7, 2021, it said in a bourse filing.

The total number of sukuk is 3,250 at a par value of $200,000, with a return of 5.625% and a maturity of 5.5 years.

The sukuk is subject to early dissolution at the option of the company upon the occurrence of a tax event or a total loss event, an asset disposition event, a delisting event, or a dissolution event. A change of control put option, delisting event put option, and an asset disposition put option and a company clean-up call option also apply to the sukuk redemption.

A request was submitted to the International Stock Exchange Authority Ltd. for the listing of and permission to deal in the certificates of the sukuk on the Official List of The International Stock Exchange. Sukuk certificates might be sold in reliance on Regulation S or Rule 144A under the US Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

The company will continue to complete all the necessary procedures to settle the issuance of the sukuk and allocate to the investors, as this subscription was twice oversubscribed.

This step comes to support and strengthen the company's financial position through settling a large portion of its existing loans, and to free-up many of its assets as part of the strategy to release all its mortgaged assets at lending banks.

This step will also provide an additional liquidity to support and finance the company's near and medium-term expansion plan that includes eight projects, which comes in line with the broad strategy, aiming to expand within the lifestyle shopping centers, that include various entertainment destinations such as cinemas, luxurious restaurants and cafes, in addition to retail stores.

Meanwhile, Arabian Centres announced that Moody’s assigned Ba2 credit rating to this sukuk issuance and upgraded the inaugural sukuk issuance due on 2024 to Ba2 credit rating. Fitch assigned BB+(EXP) credit rating to the sukuk.