Investors vie for piece of rare Sime Darby sukuk

Malaysian plantation company Sime Darby on Tuesday offered investors the chance to take part in a rare dollar sukuk from Malaysia. It tapped investors with an $800 million dual-tranche bond, which attracted a blowout order book of $8.7 billion.

Aside from Petronas, there have been few dollar sukuks from Malaysian companies. Thanks to its scarcity value, the company was able to lock in cheap funding.

The coupons for the five- and 10-year bonds were 2.053% and 3.29% respectively. These were the lowest coupons achieved by any company globally in the US dollar sukuk market for the respective tenors and also the lowest coupons by a Malaysian issuer...