Nomura to issue USD100 million Sukuk Al-Ijarah

Nomura appointed Kuwait Finance House (Malaysia) Berhad as the Mandated Lead Arranger for the proposed issuance of a two-year Sukuk al-Ijarah of USD100 million.

The issuance marks the first United States dollar-denominated sukuk for a Japanese multinational corporation issued out of Malaysia under the Framework of Issuance of Foreign Currency-Denominated Bonds and Sukuk in Malaysia, according to a Nomura report.

The Subscription Agreement was signed by Mr Takumi Shibata, Deputy President and Chief Operating Officer of Nomura Holdings, Mr Akira Komichi, Director, NBB Ijarah, Encik Azizan Mohd Som, Director, Nomura Sukuk and Chief Executive Officer of KFHMB, Puan Jamelah Jamaluddin, and witnessed by Datuk Ranjit Ajit Singh, Managing  Director, Securities Commission Malaysia and Dato' Yusli Mohamed Yusoff, Chief Executive Officer, Bursa Malaysia.

Takumi Shibata said, “This issuance is part of Nomura’s ongoing push to diversify its funding sources to drive growth. Islamic investors and Islamic finance are a very important and rapidly growing sector globally and this transaction is highly significant for Nomura and for corporate Japan.”

He added, “Nomura has now opened the way for other Japanese corporations to tap the Islamic finance market, and we believe that the transaction will lead to significant benefits for Nomura and for our clients and partners.”

“For this Sukuk al-Ijarah, we are targeting investors from Asia Pacific, the Middle East and London. At the same time, Nomura has worldwide operations in more than 30 countries, and we hope to also reach out to its customer base,” said Puan Jamelah.