Standard Charterd Plans To Arrange Over $4B Sukuk This Yr-Exec - WSJ.com

Standard Chartered PLC (STAN.LN) plans to arrange more than $4 billion worth of Islamic bonds, or sukuk, globally this year exceeding last year's figures as confidence and liquidity return to credit markets, a senior executive said.

"We arranged more than $4 billion of sukuk last year. We hope to beat last year's figures," Ahsan Ali, head of Islamic origination at Standard Chartered told Zawya Dow Jones in an interview on the sidelines of a conference in Dubai.

"Issuers of Islamic bonds will take advantage of better market conditions and levels of liquidity," he added.

Total global sukuk issuance stood at $11.1 billion at the end of August, a 20% drop from $14 billion in the same period last year, data from Zawya Sukuk Monitor shows.

The global market for primary Islamic bonds shrank by more than half to $15.2 billion in 2008. Islamic bonds comply with Islam's ban on interest and are backed by physical assets from which returns are derived and paid to bondholders instead.

Ali believes the outlook for Islamic finance remains strong.