Turkish lender Turkiye Finans has applied for an Islamic bonds, programme that would allow it to raise an aggregate 5 billion lira ($800 million), according to the country's Capital Markets Board.
Pending regulatory approval, it would be the largest sukuk programme for Turkiye Finans, a sharia-compliant lender with a focus on loans to corporate clients and which is majority owned by Saudi Arabia's National Commercial Bank .
The sukuk would be sold through a wholly-owned leasing unit, TF Varlik Kiralama, with an initial issuance of 180 million lira and maturity of 119 days.
This could be increased to 270 million lira depending on investor demand, the bank said.
Turkiye Finans is a frequent issuer in the domestic market, although its previous sukuk programme from 2017 had an issuance ceiling of 2 billion lira. The bank has also issued dollar-denominated and ringgit-denominated sukuk.
($1 = 6.2440 liras)
(Reporting by Bernardo Vizcaino; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise) ((Bernardo.Vizcaino@thomsonreuters.com; Telf: +61293218168; Reuters Messaging: bernardo.vizcaino.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
