#Dubai Islamic Bank hires lenders to arrange Islamic bonds issue - document | ZAWYA MENA Edition

Dubai Islamic Bank hires lenders to arrange Islamic bonds issue - document | ZAWYA MENA Edition

Dubai Islamic Bank, the largest Islamic lender in the United Arab Emirates, has hired banks to arrange a planned benchmark issuance of U.S. dollar-denominated Additional Tier 1 sukuk, a document showed on Monday.

Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD Capital, First Abu Dhabi Bank, HSBC and Standard Chartered will arrange fixed income investor calls starting on Monday, a document from one of the banks showed.

An issuance of AT1 Islamic bonds that are non-callable for six years will follow, subject to market conditions. Benchmark size generally means at least $500 million.

Sources told Reuters last week that DIB was planning to tap the international debt markets with U.S. dollar-denominated AT1 sukuk.

AT1 bonds, the riskiest debt instruments banks can issue, are designed to be perpetual in nature but issuers can call them after a specified period.

DIB issued $1 billion in AT1 sukuk in November and several Gulf lenders have taken advantage of low rates to shore up their Tier 1 capital this year.

Saudi Arabia's largest lender, National Commercial Bank, led the way in January by raising $1.25 billion in AT1 sukuk with the lowest coupon from the region.