Britain became the first Western country to sell an Islamic bond on Wednesday, attracting 2.3 billion pounds ($3.9bn) in orders, more than 10 times the amount it was looking to sell.
The government raised 200 million pounds from the five-year sukuk issue, part of an effort to boost London’s position as a centre for Islamic finance.
Finance minister George Osborne said he hoped the deal would spur more corporate issuance of Islamic bonds, which cannot pay interest but instead offer a fixed profit stream based on underlying assets such as property.
“Today’s issuance of Britain’s first sovereign sukuk delivers on the government’s commitment to become the Western hub of Islamic finance and is part of our plan to make Britain the undisputed centre of the global financial system,” he said.
The Islamic bond was priced to give a profit rate of 2.036 per cent, the same as the yield on Britain’s benchmark five-year government bond, or gilt. That is less than the premium of up to 2 basis points over the conventional bond that was initially indicated, reflecting bumper demand.
