QNB Capital wins three IFN awards for Qatar and Kuwait sukuk deals

QNB Capital has received three Islamic Finance News Deal of the Year 2025 awards for its work on sukuk transactions in Qatar and Kuwait, according to Gulf Times. The investment banking arm of QNB Group acted as a joint lead manager on both deals, which included Qatar’s return to the international sukuk market after a 13-year absence and Kuwait’s first Tier II sustainable sukuk.

The bank won the Qatar Deal of the Year award for the sovereign’s $3 billion issuance. Its role in Kuwait International Bank’s $300 million Tier II sustainable sukuk earned it both the Kuwait Deal of the Year and Regulatory Deal of the Year awards. The recognition therefore covered two different types of borrower: a sovereign issuer raising international funding and a financial institution strengthening its regulatory capital while directing proceeds towards sustainable projects.

Demand for the two transactions

Qatar’s issuance had a 10-year tenor and drew more than $12 billion in demand from investors worldwide. That put demand at more than four times the size of the offering. The transaction brought the country back to international sukuk investors after 13 years, with the scale of orders indicating appetite for its Sharia-compliant debt. QNB Capital participated alongside other joint lead managers in bringing the sovereign transaction to market.

Kuwait International Bank’s smaller issuance attracted an order book of more than $2 billion, compared with its $300 million size. As Kuwait’s first Tier II sustainable sukuk, it combined a regulatory-capital function with a sustainability-linked use of proceeds. The funds are to be allocated to eligible sustainable projects under the lender’s Sustainable Finance Framework. The issuance also supports the bank’s efforts to diversify its funding sources and reinforce its regulatory capital position.

QNB Capital chief executive Mira al-Attiyah said the awards reflected the significance and complexity of the two transactions, as well as the confidence sovereign and financial-institution clients placed in the investment bank. She said its regional expertise, execution capabilities and access to international investors helped clients meet their funding objectives while supporting the development of more diversified Islamic capital markets.

A growing global sukuk market

The awards come against a backdrop of rising sukuk issuance worldwide. Global issuance reached $264.8 billion in 2025, up 12.7% from the previous year, according to S&P Global Ratings figures cited by Gulf Times. Both the Qatar and Kuwait transactions attracted investor orders well above their respective offering sizes within that expanding market.

The broader Islamic finance industry also recorded growth before that increase in issuance. Global Islamic finance assets rose 21% year on year in 2024 to $5.98 trillion, according to the ICD-LSEG Islamic Finance Development Report 2025. The asset figures and issuance figures cover different periods and measures, but provide the industry context for the transactions recognised by IFN.

The IFN awards assess transactions across the global Islamic finance industry on criteria including innovation, structure, market impact and execution. For Kuwait International Bank, the stated next use of the financing is the allocation of proceeds to eligible projects under its sustainability framework, alongside the issuance’s funding-diversification and regulatory-capital purposes.