The Federation of Malaysia set its mark on the world of Islamic finance yesterday Tuesday with the completion of the world's first Islamic global bond issue. The government achieved all of its objectives with the five-year Shariah compliant issue, which managed to penetrate a new investor base while still maintaining balanced distribution between liquidity and buy and hold investors.
The lead manager also deserves plaudits for its pioneering efforts and ability to manage market expectations with a strategy that saw it launch a relatively small deal size then build up as the transaction gathered momentum. Even the unexpected announcement and subsequent retraction of prime minister, Mahathir Mohamed's decision to resign over the weekend failed to...
