Barwa Bank, the Qatari lender that became one of the top 10 underwriters of Arabian Gulf Islamic bonds within three years of opening, plans to seek a credit rating in the second half before a possible sukuk sale.
Qatar’s smallest Islamic bank helped issuers including the Qatar, Dubai and Turkish governments sell sukuk last year, as sales in the region tripled, according to the lender’s data. Barwa Bank arranged US$863 million of notes in 2012, just behind QInvest, a unit of Qatar Islamic Bank, the nation’s biggest Sharia-compliant lender by assets, data compiled by Bloomberg show. That made it the eighth-biggest underwriter out of 25 for Gulf Cooperation Council sukuk…………………………………….Full Article: Source