Maybank Islamic to arrange Gulf sukuk, opens Dubai branch

"By having a presence here, we are closer to the ground and it's much easier for us to also understand some of the deal flow coming through, " Dato' Mohamed Rafique Merican, Maybank Islamic's CEO, told Reuters on Monday on the sidelines of an event for the launch of its Dubai branch.

DUBAI: Maybank Islamic aims to arrange six dollar sukuk deals in the Gulf in 2020, including at least one sovereign issuance, its CEO said on Monday, as the bank opened a branch in Dubai, its first outside of Malaysia.

The lender, which the CEO said is the largest Islamic bank by assets in the ASEAN group of Southeast Asian countries, is the Islamic banking arm of Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank), Malaysia's largest lender by assets.