The emirate of Sharjah is planning to raise funds through a dollar-denominated Islamic bond, in what could be the first sovereign sukuk issuance from the Gulf region this year. The issue would be of "benchmark size", traditionally understood to mean in excess of USD500 million. Sharjah has mandated six local and international banks to arrange the sukuk. The sovereign is aiming to issue the sukuk in the 1Q and could announce investor meetings for the deal as early as this month. Any sukuk issue would be only its second ever offering after it sold a USD750 million 10-year Islamic bond in 2014. The deal attracted significant interest from investors, who pledged orders worth 10 times its final size. (Reuters)