Jordan awards ICD sukuk mandate

AMMAN — The Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) announced last week in a press statement that it signed an advisory agreement with the  Ministry of Finance.

ICD, the private sector arm of IDB Group, said  the ministry has mandated it as a transaction technical support in the proposed debut domestic sukuk offering.

“The mandate letter was signed between Finance Minister. Umayya Toukan and ICD’s Chief Executive Officer Khaled Al Aboodi,” the press release said. 

“The dinar-denominated Sukuk, expected to be issued this year, would be used as an instrument to absorb excess liquidity [estimated to be 1.4 billion dinars] held by the Kingdom’s for Islamic banks,” said Toukan. ICD aims to develop member countries’ capital markets, specifically Islamic debt capital markets through Sukuk.

“By creating domestic Islamic capital market, the member country would be able to provide an alternative to its treasury bills for Islamic financial institutions to invest in. Although it is not practically common for global Sukuk arrangers, we took responsibility to fill this gap in the market which naturally falls within the developmental principals of ICD,” Aboodi said.