BARELY a week after Commerce International Merchant Bankers Bhd (CIMB) announced it had secured an investment banking licence in Brunei, its Islamic banking unit is working with a Brunei client to help issue a US$300mil (RM1.1bil) Sukuk (Islamic bonds) facility that may be the first by a local company in the oil kingdom.
Badlisyah Abdul Ghani (see illustration), the head of CIMB Islamic, declined to give more details on the issue but said the Islamic unit would aggressively explore opportunities to assist some of Brunei’s leading companies in raising funds for their expansion purposes via the issuance of Islamic papers.