DOHA – Qatar Petroleum (QP) is preparing to float its sukuk, Commerzbank chief analyst Apostolos Bantis said. "Following the considerable success of the new sovereign sukuk, the country's national oil and gas flagship QP is also expected to place its first sukuk bond sometime in the second half of 2012," he said. In early July, Qatar returned to the international sukuk market and successfully priced a $4 billion dual-tranche, making it the largest ever international Shariah-principled debt raising and created a new benchmark in terms of size and pricing, he added. The new Qatari sukuk received very strong demand with the final order book reaching close to $25 billion and good geographic diversification in the final allocation and the five-year sukuk tranche was priced to yield 2.1 percent and the 10-year at 3.24 percent, setting record low rates for Qatari sovereign bonds, Commerzbank said in a report. It was also the lowest-fixed coupon rate paid by any GCC (Gulf Co-operation Council) issuer to date in the dollar bond market, he said, adding more importantly the new sukuk was priced inside Qatar's existing curve, with the new five-year tranche issued at a 15 basis points discount and the 10-year tranche at a 10 basis points discount over Qatar's similar-maturity conventional eurobonds, the analyst said. Separately, Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) is planning a sukuk issuance program of up to $1.5 billion, a company statement said Wednesday. The bank will seek shareholder approval of the plan in a meeting Sept. 16. – Agencies
