by AZALEA AZUAR/pic source: linkedin.com

THE International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation (IILM) has achieved a key milestone after successfully issuing its first ever 12-month short-term “A-1” rated Ṣukūk.

The 12-month tenure US$250 million (RM1.11 billion) tranche was issued together with the one-month (US$250 million) and three-month tenures (US$330 million).

This reissuance marks IILM’s eight sukuk auction for the year which raised interest among Islamic Primary Dealers and investors across the Gulf Cooperation Council markets and Asia.

This tender witnessed an excessive US$1.59 billion orderbook which shows an average bid-to-cover ratio of 192%.

IILM CEO Dr Umar Oseni expressed gratitude for the results of the auction which took place before the Aidiladha holidays.

“This auction is indeed a landmark for us, as it marks the IILM’s inaugural issuance of a 12-month tenure sukuk and we are glad that it was well-received by the market, with the demand for the tranche reaching 1.85 times the issuance size (of US$250 million).”

“Despite market volatility in a rising rate environment to combat inflation, today’s successful issuance continues to demonstrate the IILM’s commitment and key role in diversifying the supply of high-quality Shari’ah-compliant liquidity instruments, particularly in commencing to build out the issuance yield curve up to 12 months,” he said in a statement.

Umar is also confident that their US dollar issuances will also continue to fulfil the demands of institutions that offer financial services, as well as continue stabilising the Islamic financial industry.

IILM has also managed to achieve year-to-date cumulative issuances totalling US$8.06 billion through 22 sukuk series and it will continue to reissue its short-term liquidity instruments monthly as scheduled in its issuance calendar.

The corporation regularly issued short-term sukuk across different tenures and amounts to meet the demands of Islamic financial services and its total sukuk outstanding stands at US$3.51 billion.