Xinhuanet
Xinhua
Morocco sold Friday its first sovereign Islamic bond or sukuk worth one billion dirhams (about 106 million U.S. dollars), the Economy and Finance Ministry said in a statement.
The sukuk was oversubscribed 3.6 times, said the statement, adding that the sukuk holders are due to receive a yearly profit of 2.66 percent over a period of five years.
In June, Morocco adopted a decree allowing financial authorities to define different types of sovereign sukuk, and the country’s Central Bank Governor announced last week that Morocco was ready to issue its first sovereign Islamic bond on Oct. 5.
In 2017, global sukuk sales reached a record of 55.7 billion U.S. dollars.
Sukuk does not pay interest in line with Islamic law, but it distributes cash returns to investors by profits from assets such as real estate or commodities.
Last year, Morocco approved five requests to open Islamic banks in the country and allowed three other banks to sell Islamic products.
