Finance Minister Ibrahim Ameer has stated that the administration intends to sell another sukuk before the end of the year to help manage the state’s expenses.
Minister Ameer informed a local news outlet that, as part of the current administration’s program to sell USD 1 billion in sukuk, the government will be in a position to issue sukuk next year as well.
The Maldives government earned a total of USD 300 million in sukuk sales in April with Dharumavantha Hospital as an asset. The sukuk, worth around USD 387 million with interest, must be repaid after five years. A total of USD 191 million from the sukuk sales was spent on repaying the state’s debts.
The government had also prolonged the period of the overdraft facility through parliament in an effort to boost the state’s cashflow.
The Dharumavantha Hospital property was used as a mortgaging technique for the issuing of government sukuk, which is not done in the normal approach. If the loan is unable to be returned, the property will not be sold to acquire funds, as is common in such mortgaging situations.
