Egypt’s Cabinet approves international issuance of sovereign sukuk

Egypt’s Cabinet has given the finance ministry the go-ahead to take measures aimed at issuing sovereign sukuk, or Islamic bonds, on international markets, it said in a statement on Wednesday.

Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait said in earlier statements that the issuance would not be large and would be almost “similar in size” to Egypt’s first sovereign green bond issuance of $500 million in 2020 which was almost 5x oversubscribed. It is expected to range between $500 million and $1 billion, according to Maait.