Malaysia Bond House: CIMB Investment Bank
Towering achievement
CIMB Investment Bank successfully defended its top spot on the Malaysian ringgit bond league tables during the 2025 awards period, having printed more than M$32bn (US$7.7bn) worth of bonds for a 28.3% market share, according to LSEG data.
The bank showed its strength through notable transactions including palm oil producer SD Guthrie’s M$2.1bn dual-tranche sustainability-linked sukuk wakala. The October trade navigated through a heavy pipeline as issuers rushed to take advantage of low benchmark rates at the time.
Despite the competition, SDG’s sukuk – led solely by CIMB – attracted a peak order book of nearly M$3bn, almost two times the issuer’s targeted M$1.5bn size. The 10-year tranche eventually priced within the 3.73%–3.83% initial guidance, at 3.8%, while the 15-year landed at 3.97%, the mid-point of initial guidance of 3.92%–4.02%. The deal was upsized to M$2.1bn to become Malaysia’s largest SLS. The notes are tied to targets to reduce upstream greenhouse gas emissions and to make sure the company’s palm oil mills maintain their certification with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.
CIMB also secured sole mandates on an array of trades, ranging from perpetual sukuk to Islamic asset-backed securities – the latter rarely seen in Malaysia.
In May, CIMB brought logistics warehouses and manufacturing company ISP Holdings to the market with a debut M$114m green Islamic ABS, sold via special purpose vehicle Visionary Heritage. The four-tranche transaction, backed by seven factories, was the first industrial ABS wakala sukuk in the country. The transaction stood out for its structure, which allows the issuer flexibility to purchase properties from one or multiple originators in a single issue and in subsequent issues.
The first-of-its-kind transaction paves the way for future ABS to be made available to the wider Islamic financing market, not just conventional investors.
CIMB’s sustainability chops were also seen in its work leading and structuring state-owned investment company Permodalan Nasional Berhad’s jumbo M$6bn five-tranche sustainability wakala sukuk – the largest sukuk in the local currency market during the awards period. The notes were issued by SPV PNB Merdeka Ventures, which was established to manage and construct the iconic Merdeka 118 development in Kuala Lumpur, the second-tallest building in the world.
The new sukuk, split into four public tranches and one private placement, priced at lower coupons than PNBMV’s existing notes which were called prior to the new trade, reducing the costs of funding for the issuer.
The bank continues to sharpen its ESG focus, having surpassed its M$100bn sustainable finance target in 2024. In 2025, it raised the bar with a new target to raise M$300bn through sustainable finance by 2030.
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