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Crosspoint

Debt Capital Markets: Signature capability

From decision to money.

A shareholder wants half a billion dollars in the bank in eight weeks. That is not a financing request. It is an orchestration problem. A benchmark sukuk demands a dozen disciplines running in parallel, to one timetable, with one party holding the baton. This is that pathway, drawn from live international sukuk issuances led across the GCC.

$500M

drawn in 8 weeks
(six, exceptionally)

The pathway

A $1 billion programme, $500 million drawn

Six phases, many workstreams, one drawdown. The eight-week timetable is the standard; the disciplines are what make it repeatable.

  1. 1
    Week 1

    Decision & mobilisation

    Fix the objective ($500m in hand) and the instrument: a trust-certificate (sukuk) programme of $1bn with a first drawdown. Stand up the working group and the eight-week timetable, and appoint the international arrangers / joint lead managers.

  2. 2
    Week 1–2

    Advisers & structure

    Engage issuer and managers' legal counsel (English, local and Cayman). Establish the offshore issuing SPV and trustee with leading Cayman counsel. Appoint the Shari'ah advisers.

  3. 3
    Week 2–4

    Rating & Shari'ah

    Brief the rating agencies and run a managed credit-rating review to confirm or refresh the issuer rating. In parallel, complete the Shari'ah structuring and the fatwa (pronouncement) for the certificates.

  4. 4
    Week 2–5

    Documentation & due diligence

    Draft the base prospectus / offering circular and the programme suite: trust deed, agency and subscription agreements. Refresh the financial model and audited financials with auditor comfort letters. Run legal, financial and business due diligence.

  5. 5
    Week 5–6

    Marketing & listing

    Build the investor presentation and credit story; run the global roadshow (London, Zurich, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha, Singapore, Hong Kong) within selling restrictions. File the listing application (London Stock Exchange / Nasdaq Dubai).

  6. 6
    Week 7–8

    Bookbuild, price & close

    Announce, open the books, build the order book, then price and allocate. Sign, list the instrument and settle through Euroclear / Clearstream, proceeds in the account.

Disciplines, in parallel

The speed is not shortcuts; it is many workstreams running at once, to one timetable. These are the hats that get coordinated:

  • ·Arrangers & bookrunners
  • ·Legal: issuer, managers & Cayman
  • ·SPV, trustee & structure
  • ·Shari'ah board & fatwa
  • ·Rating agencies
  • ·Audit & financials
  • ·Prospectus & documentation
  • ·Investor marketing & roadshow
  • ·Listing, clearing & settlement

The honest view

When an adviser earns their fee, and when they don't.

Not every issuer needs one. A seasoned issuer with a capital-markets-literate team can run this process in-house. The banks, lawyers and scholars are engaged directly, and paying a separate adviser on top is largely wasted money. The value appears somewhere specific: when the issuer is new to the debt markets, or the management is new and doesn't yet know how the counterparties, the documents and the pricing really work. Then an experienced hand across the whole timetable can be the difference between a clean issue and an expensive education.

Worth it

A first-time issuer, or a new management team without capital-markets muscle memory. An adviser reality-checks the ask, selects the right arrangers and counsel, shapes the credit story and the terms in the issuer's favour, and holds a dozen counterparties to one clock.

Wasted money

A repeat issuer with an experienced treasury and IR function. They know the banks, the documents and the pricing, and can drive the timetable themselves. Paying an adviser to sit alongside a team that has done this before adds cost, not outcome.

Prefer to listen? Two episodes

The adviser at work

~23 min

A full walk through a live sukuk: the eight-week to-do list, and exactly where an adviser earns their fee, item by item, and where they don't.

Whose side is the bank on?

~2 min

The one thing a first-time issuer never sees: the arranging bank's real, recurring client is the investor, not you.

Proven, not theoretical

$1B

Programme established

$500M

Drawn at first issue

8 wks

Decision to money

This pathway is drawn from a career leading 5+ international sukuk issuances totalling ~$2.15 billion, listed on the Irish Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Dubai. Crosspoint's role is the one an issuer can't play for itself: the independent architect who convenes the banks, lawyers, scholars and rating agencies around a single timetable, and holds them to it.

See the career behind it

Considering the capital markets?

Whether it is a first sukuk (bond) programme or a refinancing, the pathway starts with a short, confidential conversation about the timetable.

Start a conversationmika.toivola@crosspointinc.ae