Bank Asya denies sukuk halt claims

ISTANBUL

Bank Asya denies its sukuk issuance has been blocked by the SPK.

Islamic lender Bank Asya has dismissed a report that claimed the bank’s Islamic bond issuance had been blocked by Turkey’s capital markets watchdog.

Pro-government daily Sabah had claimed in a report published April 23 that the Capital Markets Board (SPK) had halted 1 billion of a 1.25 billion-Turkish Lira sukuk issuance from the lender, which is known to have close ties with Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen’s “Service” (Hizmet) movement.

“We haven’t had any sukuk issuance demand rejected by the SPK,” the bank said in a press release yesterday.

Bank Asya said the lender had exported 550 million-lira sukuk as part of its initial application for a 1.25 billion-lira export permit it received in September, adding that the process for the remaining tranches of the program was continuing as scheduled. The Islamic lender has been in focus since media reported that state-owned companies and institutional depositors loyal to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had withdrawn 4 billion liras.