Pakistan preparing U.S. dollar bond and sukuk sale before March

The government of Pakistan plans to issue a U.S. dollar-denominated bond and sukuk before March, according to an official at the country’s ministry of finance.

“We are in the process of completing our internal procedures and working with our advisors,” the official told Salaam Gateway.  “We hope to issue both the bonds and sukuk sometime before March.”

He declined to comment on the exact timing and the size of the potential deals.

Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered and JP Morgan will arrange the conventional bond, the official noted, adding that the same consortium plus Dubai Islamic Bank will arrange the sukuk.

The new issuance will come under the government’s Medium-Term Note (MTN) programmes, covering both Eurobonds and international sukuk.

If issued, a hard currency bond and sukuk issue would be Pakistan’s first since 2017.

At that time, the country sold $2.5 billion of bonds and sukuk. The deal consisted of a $1.5 billion 6.875% 10-year conventional bond and a $1 billion 5.625% five-year sukuk.

Pakistan is rated B3 by Moody’s and B- by both S&P Global Ratings and Fitch.

(Reporting by Hassan Jivraj; Editing by Emmy Abdul Alim [email protected])

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