Indonesia raises 2.6t rupiah from new retail sukuk

[JAKARTA] Indonesia sold 2.6 trillion rupiah (S$260 million) of retail Islamic bonds (sukuk), raising more than had been targeted from a new non-tradable savings instrument aimed at individual domestic investors, the finance ministry said on Monday.

The sukuk, which were marketed between Aug 18-28 with government projects as underlying assets, were sold to 11,388 investors. They pay a 6.9 per cent coupon per annum with 2-year maturity and are not tradable.

"We're very happy with the result," said Robert Pakpahan, the ministry's director general of financing and risk management, citing that the initial target was to sell 2 trillion rupiah.

Indonesia has sold two other retail sovereign bond products, including 31.5 trillion rupiah worth of tradable retail sukuk in March.

Mr Pakpahan said the government will sell around 20 trillion rupiah of tradable retail conventional bonds later this month.

As of end-August, South-east Asia's largest economy has issued 533.8 trillion rupiah worth of sovereign bonds, nearly 30 per cent of which were Islamic.

The country aims to increase the percentage of sharia-compliant products in its bond market to around 50 per cent in a 10-year timeframe, under a masterplan it launched earlier this year.

REUTERS