Allen & Overy Singapore and Zaid Ibrahim & Co have advised Axiata Group Berhad on its one billion yuan sukuk issuance, the largest RMB-denominated sukuk, with Clifford Chance and Adnan Sundra & Low advising Bank of America Merrill Lynch, CIMB, and HSBC as joint lead managers.

The sukuk, only the second to be issued in the dim sum bond market, are listed on Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad and the Singapore Stock Exchange. The issuance is the inaugural issuance from Axiata's $1.5 billion multicurrency sukuk issuance programme established in August this year.

The sukuk issuance programme has an innovative structure which is based on the Sharia principle of Wakala, and provides the flexibility of using airtime vouchers, Sharia compliant shares, lease assets as well as Murabaha receivables arising from the sale of commodities as the underlying assets. However, the inaugural RMB issuance utilises only airtime vouchers as the underlying asset.

The Clifford Chance team was jointly led by Dubai partner Qudeer Latif and Hong Kong partner Matt Fairclough.

Ranajit Dam is Southeast Asia Editor at ALB. Follow us on Twitter: @ALB_Magazine.

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