CIMB Islamic’s 2024 deal activity underscores its ability to pair innovation with competitive pricing while deepening the Islamic capital market’s reach.
The bank’s dominant position in Asian sukuk markets is underpinned by an unbroken 13-year reign at the top of the Malaysian ringgit sukuk league tables and, more broadly, by its position as the number one sukuk arranger in ASEAN. Commanding a 12% share of the global sukuk market, the bank has arranged an accumulated $93.4 billion of issues, giving it both breadth and depth across geographies, structures and investor bases.
Its structuring expertise has translated into a series of headline transactions. United Overseas Bank’s debut RM500 million ($116.5 million) tier 2 sukuk – the first public tier 2 deal by a foreign-owned lender in Malaysia – drew orders from 42 discrete accounts spanning fund managers, takaful firms, private banks and corporates, reflecting breadth of distribution that few rivals could replicate.
Commanding a 12% share of the global sukuk market, the bank has arranged an accumulated $93.4 billion of issues
CIMB also guided Khazanah Nasional through the only US-dollar bond and sukuk public offering to emerge from Malaysia in 2024, combining a $500 million sukuk with $500 million conventional notes and squeezing pricing by 33 basis points from initial talk through deft investor engagement.
Sustainability-linked structures were another differentiator. The bank advised Bank Rakyat on its inaugural ASEAN sustainability SRI sukuk, a framework that earned a coveted “Gold” impact rating from MARC, signalling market confidence in both environmental credentials and credit quality.
On the project-finance front, CIMB brought Malaysia Rail Link’s RM1.5 billion SDG sukuk to market – the first government-guaranteed issue of its kind and, at pricing, the tightest spread achieved by any sovereign-backed Malaysian borrower.
