FlyDubai eyes sukuk

Flydubai could seek to finance its forthcoming aircraft delivery with funds raise via a bond issuance, which could take the form of a sukuk of a benchmark size of at least $500million. Eager to diversify the airline’s sources of funding, chief financial officer, Mukesh Sodani, said that they will be exploring bonds in 2015 and that a “sukuk will certainly be interesting”. Flydubai has been relying on aircraft sale and lease-back arrangements, direct bank loans and other financing options to fund its deliveries.