TCI to Issue $190m Worth of Equity-Based Ijarah Sukuk

Telecommunications Company of Iran is set to underwrite 8 trillion rials ($190.4 million) worth of equity-based Ijarah sukuk on Tehran Stock Exchange today (Sunday). “The four-year bonds will be used to finance TCI’s working capital,” Gholamreza Aboutorabi, the head of Central Securities Depository of Iran, said. They will bear 16% annual interest paid every quarter. This is the second time this type of Islamic debt security is being issued on the Iranian capital market. The first was by Social Security Investment Company worth 10 trillion rials ($238 million) on March 12. Ijarah sukuk are securities representing the ownership of well-defined assets tied up to a lease contract, the rent for which is the return payable to sukuk holders.