On the 24th September 2012 Sabana Real Estate Investment Management, as the manager of Sabana Shari’ah Compliant Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust (Sabana REIT), announced that Sabana Treasury, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sabana REIT, issued SG$80 million (US$65 million) in principal amount of convertible Sukuk, which has been fully placed to institutional investors and accredited investors.
This groundbreaking Sukuk transaction is an example of how the regulatory and tax infrastructure in Singapore is supportive of complex Islamic financing and Sukuk structures, and should be an encouraging sign of possibly more big ticket Islamic financing transactions to come in the non-Muslim majority island state. It also marks Sabana REIT’s first foray into the Sukuk market.
Sabana REIT is Singapore’s first certified Shariah compliant REIT and was established principally to invest in income-producing real estate used for industrial purposes in Asia, as well as real estate-related assets, in line with Shariah investment principles.
The landmark transaction comes in the middle of yet another record-breaking year for Sukuk issuances globally, and marks Singapore as having a role to play in the quickly maturing and evolving Islamic finance landscape.
Yeo Wico is a partner at Allen & Gledhill. He can be contacted at
[email protected]
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