Issuer: Air Lease Corporation Sukuk
Size: $600 million
Structure: Sukuk
Tenor: Five years
Banks: Bank ABC, DIB, Al Rayan, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Emirates NBD, JPMorgan, KFH Capital and Warba Bank (joint lead managers)
Date: March 2023
After a 13-year hiatus, the global sukuk market finally saw its second sukuk from a North American corporate issuer last March, reigniting expectations that other issuers from the US and Canada could look to tap this form of Islamic finance.
The $600 million five-year sukuk from California-based Air Lease Corporation was not only its debut in the format, but the largest such transaction since GE Capital, the finance unit of US conglomerate General Electric, opened the international sukuk market for North American corporate issuers with a $500 million five-year deal in 2009.
While that deal was pioneering, Air Lease’s transaction is equally novel, especially given its size, scale and rating difference with GE Capital (rated AA/A2 by S&P Global and Moody’s in 2009), which at the time had $500 billion of assets and was designated a systemically important financial institution.
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