K-Electric’s Rs. 6.7 Billion Sukuk to Go Live on Friday

Trading on K-Electric Limited’s (PSX: KE) privately placed Rs. 6.7 billion Sukuk on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) will begin on May 12, Friday.

The Islamic bond will be traded on the PSX through the Bond Automated Trading System (BATS) and settled via the National Clearing Settlement System.

The bond issue is expected to fund the company’s routine operational and capital expenditure needs, and to enhance the company’s liquidity and competitiveness in the bond market.

The Sukuk has a seven-year maturity and a 3-month KIBOR+ 170 basis points floating coupon rate. Only authorized institutional buyers will be able to buy and sell the certificate, which will have a market lot of one Sukuk certificate worth Rs. 100,000.

Sindh Province Pension Fund was the largest investor in the latest sukuk issue, investing Rs. 1 billion in the Rs. 6.7 billion paper, followed by Pak China Investment Company Limited (Rs. 750 million).

KE’s financial performance plummeted in the first three quarters of 2022-23, with a net loss of Rs. 39.4 billion compared to a net profit of Rs. 1.5 billion in 2021-22. The quarterly loss in January-March alone was Rs. 12.3 billion, up 6.7 times from the same quarter the previous year.

K-Electric Ltd CEO Moonis Alvi said on Tuesday the unusually high loss that the vertically integrated power utility recorded in the first nine months of 2022-23 constitutes no more than a “blip” in the long run.

Source: Pro Pakistani