黑洞社区

The government has announced plans for the UK to become the first country outside of the Islamic world to issue an Islamic bond, in the hope of attracting investment for UK infrastructure projects.

Prime minister David Cameron unveiled plans to launch a 拢200m Sharia-compliant 鈥榮ukuk鈥� at the World Islamic Economic Forum in London yesterday.

Islam has a prohibition on interest, so sukuk bonds entitle investors to a share in the returns generated by an underlying asset, such as a property or construction development.

The government hopes the initial 拢200m sukuk 鈥� which could be launched as early as next year 鈥� will prompt UK firms to follow suit and issue further sukuks, potentially stimulating the UK鈥檚 construction and infrastructure sectors.

The Sharia-compliant finance industry is worth $1 trillion (拢620bn) globally.

Hamid Yunis, head of Taylor Wessing鈥檚 Global Islamic Finance practice, said the announcement was 鈥渁 strong statement of intent鈥� by the UK government.

He said property and construction were likely to be the main beneficiaries of the product, as sukuk investors 鈥渘eed to know what they鈥檙e funding and the best asset is construction and development鈥�.

Yunis, who was one of the people consulted on the government鈥檚 plans, said he hoped there would now be a 鈥渃onveyor belt of sukuk projects, like with PPP and PFI鈥�.

He added there were several 鈥渞eady to go鈥� Sharia-compliant financial structures in the Islamic world tailored to supporting construction and infrastructure projects that could be imported to the UK.

These include 鈥榠stisna鈥�, a construction financing product whereby developments are funded as each phase, such as a floor of a building, is completed, and 鈥榠garah鈥�, a lease-back mechanism.

Sukuks can only be used to fund developments that are sharia-compliant, so projects like casinos wouldn鈥檛 be allowed.