At a gala dinner organised by Euromoney in London on February 24th, Saad Rahman, Executive Director, Calyon Islamic Banking, accepted the award for “Most Improved Islamic Finance House”.  The key criteria for the awards are innovation, number and quality of transactions, and the promotion of growth within the industry.  

Calyon achieved this award thanks to its involvement in the following transactions:

• Financing for Ma’aden Phosphate Company, a $5.6 billion development in Saudi Arabia
• A $2.5 billion Ijara A leasing agreement whereby the bank buys an item for a customer and then leases it back over a specific period
  syndicated facility for Qatari Diar. This facility financed the acquisition in London of Chelsea Barracks.  Calyon acted as lead arranger and bookrunner for this deal.
• A $350 million SukukIslamic Bond. Similar to an asset backed bond, Sukuk is a form of commercial paper that provides an investor with ownership in an underlying asset, and a return based on this ownership. The issuing entity needs to identify existing assets to sell to the Sukuk investors, via transference to an SPV.
  The Sukuk investors then have a proportionate beneficial ownership in these assets. Investors typically take on the credit risk of the issuer rather than real asset risk on the assets owned by the SPV.
  Sukuks can be listed and rated, though this is not necessary, depending on the target investor market. Sukuks are typically issued by corporate issuers, and some Financial Institutions, and also by Governments (Bahrain, Malaysia, Pakistan).
   issue for the Central Bank of Bahrain. A rare public issue from a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) sovereign, this was also the first public debt capital market issue from the GCC in 2008 and the only international Sukuk transaction from any jurisdiction for the entire year.  Calyon was sole arranger.

The Bloomberg 2008 year end Islamic Finance league tables show that Calyon ranks #4 for Sukuk and  #10 for Syndicated Loans Islamic Bookrunner. Calyon Sukuk ranking was achieved thanks to two deals in particular:  the Central Bank of Bahrain Sovereign Sukuk and the SABIC Sukuk.

Arranged on behalf of the Ministry of Finance through the Central Bank of Bahrain, Calyon acted as the sole arranger and underwriter for this prestigious transaction. Calyon was able to achieve a final order book in excess of USD 800 million comprising more than 25 investors.

For the SABIC transaction, Calyon worked with its affiliate Calyon Saudi Fransi Limited in Saudi Arabia who along with another international bank jointly led the SAR 5 billion Sukuk for Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC). SABIC is one of the worlds leading manufacturers of plastics, chemicals, and fertilizers. The deal was oversubscribed at over SAR 6 billion, with the majority of investors being onshore pension funds and banks.

Our bookrunner credentials were enhanced with the Qatari Diar deal. This was the largest Islamic/property related financing ever done in the United Kingdom and Calyon’s first deal with the property arm of Qatar Investment Authority.