2026 is set to be a strong year for global sukuk momentum despite the ongoing war in Iran.
Global sukuk issuance rose 25% year-on-year in 2025, led by sovereign issuers, with notable growth across banks, corporates, infrastructure, and project finance.
Emerging markets are driving much of this increase, particularly the GCC, which accounted for 45% of total Islamic bond issuance (S&P Global, 2025).The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia led the volume of sukuk issuance, followed by the United Arab Emirates. S&P projected a further uptick in 2026, before the war, with the UAE accelerating sukuk issuance across banks and Emirati real estate firms.
Non-oil growth is supporting this trajectory, as banks and real estate firms increasingly prefer sukuk over conventional bonds amid lower interest rates in the U.S. and GCC.
Methodology
Finance Middle East has identified the top 10 UAE banks and corporates across the GCC using four key criteria: scale, contribution to national diversification, structural sophistication, and investor reach.
This list recognises the banks and corporates delivering high-quality sukuk issuance, assessed on scale, contribution to national diversification, structural sophistication, and investor reach.
Jump to Your Issuer:
| Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank | Ajman Bank |
| Al Rajhi Bank | Binghatti Holding |
| Dubai Islamic Bank | Emirates Islamic |
| Majid Al-Futtaim | Mashreq Al-Islami |
| OMNIYAT | Sobha Reality |
Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank
Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank demonstrates strong performance in sukuk issuance. On scale, ADIB consistently executes benchmark-sized USD issuances (including Additional Tier 1 and senior green sukuk) that are multiple times oversubscribed, indicating robust market depth and pricing power. For instance, the bank issued a $750M AT1 and a $500M senior green sukuk in 2023. The green issuance marked the world’s first USD-denominated green sukuk by a financial institution.
On contribution to national diversification, its green and sovereign-linked sukuk support the UAE’s sustainable finance agenda and capital market deepening, aligning with broader economic diversification away from hydrocarbons. On the structural sophistication of issuance, ADIB employs Sharia-compliant structures such as Ijarah-based and Basel III-compliant AT1 perpetual sukuk, reflecting advanced treasury and capital optimisation capabilities.
ADIB also maximises investor reach, combining strong international institutional participation with retail innovation through fractional sukuk platforms, materially broadening access beyond traditional high-net-worth and institutional buyers. Overall, ADIB ranks high across these dimensions, particularly in innovation and investor expansion within Islamic capital markets.
Ajman Bank
Ajman Bank’s inaugural $500M, 5‑year sukuk issuance in May 2025 stood out as a high‑quality capital market transaction. The sukuk, priced at a fixed profit rate of 5.125% with a 130 bp spread over U.S. Treasuries, was the bank’s first foray into international sukuk markets, marking a significant milestone in its capital markets strategy.
On scale, the $500M issuance, though mid‑sized relative to global sovereign or large corporate sukuk, is material for a debut from a mid‑tier UAE financial institution. This benchmark size has allowed Ajman Bank to establish a credible presence in global debt markets under its $1.5B Trust Certificate Issuance Programme, laying the groundwork for future funding diversification.
On structural sophistication, the transaction demonstrated significant market discipline and technical execution. The order book peaked at over $2.7B, achieving a 5.4 times oversubscription, with more than 100 institutional investors participating, indicating robust demand and effective pricing dynamics. Oversubscription and the ability to tighten pricing between initial and final guidance reflect a high‑quality book build and strong investor confidence.
The sukuk was also listed on international venues: Nasdaq Dubai and the London Stock Exchange. The issuance materially diversifies Ajman Bank’s funding base beyond deposits and local financing, deepening its integration into global Islamic capital markets and supporting the UAE’s broader economic diversification objectives. Investor reach is broad both regionally and internationally: 65% of the allocation in the transaction came from regional investors and 35% from international participants.
Participation of a wide range of institutional profiles further enhances the quality of the investor base and supports future sustainability of Ajman Bank’s access to capital markets. Ajman Bank’s issuance combines respectable scale for a debut, sophisticated execution, meaningful diversification impact, and extensive investor reach, positioning it as a high‑quality sukuk that advances both the bank’s strategic ambitions and broader market development goals.
Al Rajhi Bank
Al Rajhi Bank has established itself as a major sukuk issuer with significant scale in Saudi capital markets. The bank is one of the largest Islamic banks in the world with total assets under management of $71.2B. The bank regularly taps domestic and international markets with large-volume issuances that reinforce its funding base and credit profile, supporting the Kingdom’s move away from oil-derived revenue in accordance with Shariah-compliant issuances.
In January, the bank issued a $1B USD-denominated social AT1 sukuk. The bank’s sukuk programs have featured advanced Islamic structures (Ijarah and Wakalah formats), aligned with global investor expectations and regulatory frameworks. While the bank primarily attracts strong regional and institutional demand, it is increasingly participating in initiatives that widen participation although retail access remains more limited relative to institutional uptake.
Overall, Al Rajhi Bank performs strongly on scale and structural depth, with growing investor engagement outside of corporate issuances across retail issuance.
Binghatti Holding
Binghatti Holding’s sukuk issuance track record is evolving but noteworthy. The real estate firm successfully executed multiple sizable USD-denominated benchmark sukuk under its $1.5B Trust Certificate Issuance Programme, including several $500M transactions that have helped build out a sukuk yield curve through 2031, with strong oversubscription levels indicating market confidence and liquidity depth.
Sukuk issuances — including green sukuk tied to sustainable project financing — support the UAE’s expanding Islamic capital markets and broader strategies to attract diversified institutional funding sources beyond traditional bank lending. Structurally, the sukuk demonstrate advanced capital markets execution with dual listings on Nasdaq Dubai and the London Stock Exchange, long tenors (exceeding five-years), and integration of ESG objectives in green tranches.
The deals have drawn geographically diversified demand with approximately half of all issuances being from international investors and recognition from market bodies, such as the CEEMEA Bond of the Year. Binghatti Holding’s recent $500M five-year benchmark sukuk was oversubscribed more than 4.4 times with international investors accounting for 51% of the orderbook.
Retail participation remains limited, as the firm has denied reports of any imminent IPO. Its large-ticket USD benchmark sukuk continue to attract a diversified base of regional and international institutional investors, underscoring strong market confidence despite the absence of a public listing.
Dubai Islamic Bank
Dubai Islamic Bank has issued multiple large benchmark sukuk including $750M inaugural sustainable sukuk (2022), a $1B sustainable issue, and a $B sustainability-linked sukuk, along with a $500M Basel III Additional-Tier-1 issuance, demonstrating substantial access to global capital markets and strong deal sizes for a regional Islamic bank.
All these sukuk issuances support the UAE’s economic and ESG goals, notably financing sustainable and social objectives under its Sustainable Finance Framework and advancing broader capital-market development beyond traditional bank funding, aligning with national diversification and net-zero strategies. DIB has progressed from conventional sustainable sukuk to innovate with sustainability-linked structures that tie pricing to measurable ESG performance targets, reflecting advanced structuring complexity and alignment with global fixed-income standards.
Finally, DIB’s transactions have attracted broad institutional participation from Europe, Asia and the Middle East with robust oversubscription levels and diversified allocations across regions and investor types, underscoring a strong international and regional investor base, though the primary audience remains institutional rather than retail.
Overall, DIB’s sukuk issuance demonstrates high marks across scale, sophistication, diversification impact, and investor engagement in Islamic capital markets.
Emirates Islamic
Emirates Islamic has demonstrated meaningful scale and sophistication in the sukuk market through a series of landmark issuances that underscore both investor confidence and its structural innovation.
In March 2025, the bank priced a $750M senior unsecured sukuk that attracted an order book exceeding $1.6B, resulting in a 2.1 times oversubscription and participation from over 100 investors, including substantial regional and international allocations: a clear signal of its expanding investor reach.
Emirates Islamic issued the world’s first sustainability-linked financing sukuk, a $500M benchmark under its 4B sukuk programme, which achieved $1.2B in orders and a 2.4 times oversubscription.
These sukuk transactions reflect the bank’s ability to mobilise sizeable liquidity but also support UAE diversification objectives by attracting a broad mix of banks, fund managers and institutional investors to Shariah-compliant and sustainability-linked structures.
Majid Al Futtaim
Majid Al Futtaim regularly executes large benchmark issuances. Most recently the firm issued a $500M 10-year sukuk due 2035 that attracted an order book exceeding $2B with a profit rate of 4.875%. Al Futtaim cumulatively holds $2.2B in sukuk listed on Nasdaq Dubai across four issuances, underscoring strong volumes for a corporate issuer.
Sukuk participation, including green and general corporate financings, supports the UAE’s broader effort to deepen capital markets and diversify non-oil financing avenues for large corporates, linking Islamic finance to a diversified real economy player beyond traditional banking and energy sectors.
Majid Al Futtaim has pioneered sustainable sukuk within the region with multiple green issuances under its established program and uses internationally recognized listing platforms (Nasdaq Dubai) with investment-grade ratings, reflecting credible Islamic capital markets structuring.
Transactions draw a geographically diversified base, with roughly half of allocations going to international investors alongside strong regional demand, reflecting broad institutional engagement even though retail participation remains limited due to deal size and type.
Mashreq Al Islami
Mashreq Al Islami is ranking highly across corporate and retail issuances, a rare achievement for UAE banks.
The bank has launched a material debut public sukuk — a $500M five-year issuance under a broader $2.5B Trust Certificate Issuance Programme — that drew a strong order book of $2.9B. The transaction helped broaden the UAE’s Islamic capital markets by reinforcing Dubai’s role as a hub for Sharia-compliant funding and by re-opening the CEEMEA capital markets in a volatile macro environment, implicitly supporting diversified financing beyond traditional banking activities.
Mashreq’s sukuk is rated by global agencies and listed on major platforms, including Euronext Dublin and Nasdaq Dubai, reflecting sound Islamic capital market mechanics under a disciplined programme rather than highly innovative features.
The strong oversubscription and geographically diversified participation (Middle East, Europe, Asia) underscore broad institutional appeal and effective engagement with global investors, though as with many large corporate-sized issuances, retail investor penetration remains limited by deal size and market norms.
Overall, Mashreq’s sukuk issuance demonstrates solid market execution and institutional demand with meaningful support for the broader Islamic finance ecosystem.
OMNIYAT
OMNIYAT’s sukuk issuance, though newer relative to long-established financial issuers, is recognised for its pace of issuance and contribution to UAE diversification.
OMNIYAT rapidly built a footprint with multiple benchmark issues in 2025, including a $500M three-year green sukuk and a $400M 3.5-year sukuk, bringing its total raised to about $900M in the year under a $2B Trust Certificate Issuance Programme and attracting strong order books.
OMNIYAT’s sukuk deepens the UAE’s real estate sector’s participation in Islamic capital markets and support sustainable property development, reinforcing broader economic diversification by linking private real estate financing with international Islamic debt capital markets.
Issuances include a formally designated green sukuk financing under a Green Financing Framework and dual listings on Nasdaq Dubai and the London Stock Exchange’s International Securities Market.
Both transactions saw strong regional and international institutional demand well above issue sizes, with oversubscriptions and price tightening indicating broad investor engagement although participation remains predominantly institutional rather than retail.
Sobha Reality
Sobha Realty’s has rapidly grown its benchmark issuances, scoring one of the largest green sukuk issuances by a UAE real estate developer after its first issuance in 2023. The firm started sukuk issuance with an inaugural $300M sukuk, later issuing a landmark $750M green sukuk in the UAE property market: both listed on Nasdaq Dubai and the London Stock Exchange.
The firm’s expansion connects real estate corporates with global Islamic investors, by integrating sustainability financing into the broader economic fabric, reinforcing non-oil sector capital market development. The green issuance under a $1.5B Trust Certificate Programme aligned with international Green Bond Principles and supported by independent second-party opinions, reflecting advanced capital market structuring that combines ESG credentials with conventional sukuk mechanics.
Sobha’s sukuk attracted broad regional and international institutional participation and strong oversubscriptions, underscoring diversified investor interest, though retail participation remains minimal due to standard large-ticket benchmarks.
Sobha’s sukuk issuance demonstrates solid scale, evolving structural depth with sustainability integration, a clear role in market diversification, and broad institutional investor engagement.
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