Yousef Bin Abdullah Al Shelash, Chairman of Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Development Company rang the market opening bell this morning celebrating the listing of a 500 million US dollar Sukuk on Nasdaq Dubai.
The listing backs Dar Al Arkan’s financing and capital raising strategy to support the continuing real estate activities across Saudi Arabia. The projects fall under commercial real estate and integrated residential communities. The listing also supports global expansions of Dar Al Arkan and its international project; I Love Florence Tower with interiors by Roberto Cavalli, a co-branded residential project in Downtown Dubai which was launched in December 2017.
The five-year Sukuk was oversubscribed for more than 2 times and received significant interest from Middle Eastern, European and Asian investors. It brings Dar Al Arkan’s total Sukuk value listed on Nasdaq, Dubai to 1.85 billion US dollars, following three other Sukuk listings by the company on the region’s international exchange in 2014 and 2017.
The bell ceremony took place in the presence of His Excellency Essa Kazim, Governor of Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), Secretary General of Dubai Islamic Economy Development Centre (DIEDC), and Chairman of Dubai Financial Market (DFM), and senior representatives of Dar Al Arkan, as well as Abdul Wahed Al Fahim, Chairman of Nasdaq Dubai and Hamed Ali, Chief Executive of Nasdaq Dubai.
Yousef Bin Abdullah Al Shelash, Chairman of Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Development Company, said: “Our latest successful Sukuk issuance supports our activities throughout Saudi Arabia under the National Transformation Program as part of the ‘Vision 2030’ strategy, as well as the international expansion that we began in 2017. Our listing on Nasdaq Dubai, the international exchange based in the GCC, provides us with excellent contacts and visibility to investors in our own region and around the world as well.”
His Excellency Essa Kazim, Governor of DIFC, Secretary General of DIEDC and Chairman of DFM, said: “This listing by one of the Middle East’s leading real estate development companies underlines the close Islamic capital markets ties between UAE and Saudi Arabia. We will further strengthen our relationships with Sharia’a-compliant entities in GCC countries to underpin Dubai’s expansion as the global Capital of Islamic Economy under the initiative launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.”
Dar Al Arkan’s assets in Saudi Arabia include a 36.4 million square meter land bank in Jeddah, Riyadh and Mecca.
Abdul Wahed Al Fahim, Chairman of Nasdaq Dubai, said: “We are delighted to make our comprehensive exchange infrastructure available to Dar Al Arkan in order to support its capital raising needs as it pursues its real estate activities. Nasdaq Dubai will maintain its strategy of attracting high quality issuers of Sukuk and other Islamic asset classes across a wide range of industry sectors.”
Hamed Ali, Chief Executive of Nasdaq Dubai, said: “We congratulate Dar Al Arkan’s team for concluding a successful transaction and listing and are committed to strengthening our relationship with the company and the investors in its Sukuk through our post-listing relationship. As an international platform, we are preparing to expand our support for a range of issuers in Saudi Arabia and other regional and international countries.”
Dar Al Arkan’s latest Sukuk listing on Nasdaq Dubai took place on March 22, 2018.
Dubai’s Sukuk listings have now reached a total nominal value of 58.815 billion US dollars, the highest amount of any listing venue in the world.