CIMB Group Holdings Bhd., the top global sukuk underwriter for a fourth year, is seeking to boost its business in the Persian Gulf to fight off HSBC Holdings Plc’s challenge to its dominance.
The Southeast Asian nation’s second-biggest lender arranged $3.6 billion of notes complying with Islam’s ban on receiving and paying interest in 2010, or 23 percent of the total, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Persian Gulf issues made up 3.5 percent of CIMB’s business this year. The Kuala Lumpur-based bank beat HSBC into second place for a fourth year. Global sukuk sales totaled $15.3 billion so far this year, 24 percent less than in 2009. Sales reached a record $31 billion in 2007.
“We should be able to do better” in 2011, Badlisyah Abdul Ghani, chief executive officer of CIMB Bank Islamic Bhd., said in a telephone interview Dec. 22. “With the infrastructure developments in Malaysia and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, I anticipate sukuk issuance will be about the same as 2007 or better. We are looking at several deals from the Gulf.”
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