Oman’s $2bn debut international sukuk launched on 23 May, was more than three times oversubscribed with orderbooks of $6.9bn and better than expected pricing, according to fresh details on the issue released in early June by the Ministry of Finance.
The seven-year sukuk was tightly priced at 235bps over mid-swaps, 15bps inside its conventional bond curve, compared to an initial higher price range of over 270bps. The market initially factored in a higher pricing for the sukuk, when it was first announced by Muscat on 17 May, shortly after Standard & Poor’s downgraded Oman to junk status from BBB-/Negative to BB+/Negative (MEES, 19 May). Subsequently Moody’s and Fitch rated the debut Oman sukuk at Baa1 and BBB respectively. (CONTINUED - 717 WORDS)
