Aktif Bank gets OK for $91-mln sukuk

LONDON - Reuters

Ahmet Çalık, owner of Aktif Bank’s parent company Çalık Holding, poses in this file photo. The lender receives approval for sukuk issuance. AA Photo

Aktif Bank, Turkey’s largest privately owned investment bank, has received regulatory approval to issue 200 million lira ($91 million) in Islamic bonds, the Capital Markets Board said.

The lender will sell the sukuk to qualified investors through its asset leasing company, Aktif Bank Sukuk VarlIk Kiralama. It gave no time frame for the deal.

Last month, Turkish conglomerate Doğuş Group received regulatory approval to raise $370 million via sukuk in what would be the first dollar-denominated corporate transaction of the kind in the country.


Until now, Turkey has only seen significant issuance of sukuk from the government and the country’s four Islamic banks, known as participation banks.

Last year, Aktif Bank helped raise a small one-year 100 million lira sukuk for construction-to-energy
firm Agaoglu Group using a sukuk structure known as mudaraba.

The Capital Markets Board has outlined new regulations to allow a wider range of sukuk structures, as the initial rules focused on ijara, an Islamic sale-and-lease-back contract.