The third auction of the UAE's dirham-denominated treasury sukuk for the year was oversubscribed by 5.5 times, receiving bids worth Dh6 billion ($1.63 billion), the Ministry of Finance said on Wednesday.
The move comes as part of the government's Sharia-compliant treasury bonds programme for this year.
The third auction also involved the issuance of the first dirham-denominated Sharia-compliant treasury sukuk with a five-year maturity, which was oversubscribed by 6.6 times, the ministry said.
T-sukuk are Sharia-compliant financial certificates. The issuer of a sukuk essentially sells an investor group a certificate and then uses the proceeds to purchase an asset that the investor group has direct partial ownership interest in, according to online financial encyclopaedia Investopedia.
The UAE, the Arab world's second-largest economy, is seeking to diversify its funding resources and support the growth of the Islamic economy.
In May, the government announced that the first auction of the UAE's dirham-denominated treasury sukuk for the year was oversubscribed by 7.6 times, receiving bids worth Dh8.3 billion.
The value of the first auction stood at Dh1.1 billion.
“The T-sukuk programme will contribute to building the UAE dirham-denominated yield curve, providing safe investment alternatives for investors, strengthening the local debt capital market, developing the investment environment, as well as supporting sustainable economic growth,” the ministry said on Wednesday.
In the Islamic treasury bonds auction, the government is represented by the Ministry of Finance as the issuer, in collaboration with the UAE Central Bank as the issuing and payment agent.
The latest auction received strong demand through the eight primary bank dealers, the ministry said.
“The strong demand was on both, the two- and five-year tranches. The success is reflected in the attractive market driven prices, which was achieved by a spread of zero to two basis points over US Treasuries with similar maturities,” it said.
The auction also followed the practice of reopening the two-year T-sukuk “which helps in building up the size of individual sukuk issues over time and improve liquidity in the secondary market”.
The specs
Engine: 2-litre or 3-litre 4Motion all-wheel-drive Power: 250Nm (2-litre); 340 (3-litre) Torque: 450Nm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Starting price: From Dh212,000 On sale: Now
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
The lowdown
Badla
Rating: 2.5/5
Produced by: Red Chillies, Azure Entertainment
Director: Sujoy Ghosh
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Amrita Singh, Tony Luke
The Vile
Starring: Bdoor Mohammad, Jasem Alkharraz, Iman Tarik, Sarah Taibah
Director: Majid Al Ansari
Rating: 4/5
Squads
India (for first three ODIs) Kohli (capt), Rohit, Rahul, Pandey, Jadhav, Rahane, Dhoni, Pandya, Axar, Kuldeep, Chahal, Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar, Umesh, Shami.
Australia Smith (capt), Warner, Agar, Cartwright, Coulter-Nile, Cummins, Faulkner, Finch, Head, Maxwell, Richardson, Stoinis, Wade, Zampa.
Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
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