Europe's first Islamic bond due next week

Pricing was initially pencilled in for this week, but the novel nature of the deal means that launch has now moved to next week, he said.

The bond is set to be priced at one basis point over Euribor. The bond from Saxony-Anhalt is adapted to meet Islamic laws, which forbid interest payments. Instead, investors in Islamic bonds, called Sukuks, receive regular payments based on profits from approved investments. Citigroup Global Markets is lead arranger for the issue and Kuwait finance house is the co-lead manager. S&P has assigned a preliminary AA- senior unsecured rating to the floating-rate notes being issued by Stichting Sachsen-Anhalt Trust and maturing in 2009. Fitch assigned an expected AAA rating, in line with its long-term Saxony-Anhalt rating.