This is the largest corporate sukuk to date. The seven year deal was a structured as a musharaka or joint venture. This is the second musharaka sukuk to be listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. The firm also advised Dubai Islamic Bank and Standard Bank on the first musharaka sukuk, which was the Gold Sukuk dmcc.

The musharaka or joint venture was set up to develop a new engineering centre and a new headquarters building on land situated near Dubai's airport which will ultimately be leased to Emirates. Profit, in the form of lease returns, generated from the musharaka or joint venture will be used to pay the periodic distribution on the trust certificates. The trust certificates have been listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.

Joint book-runners for the transaction were Dubai Islamic Bank, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank and the other joint lead managers include Gulf International Bank BSC, National Bank of Abu Dhabi and UBS Investment Bank.

Denton Wilde Sapte has established a strong reputation in Islamic Finance, particularly in structuring Sharia transactions, and in Capital Markets. It has advised on a number of sukuk deals, underscoring the firm's offering in the Middle East, which is now the largest law firm in the region.

The team in Dubai was led by partner Rahail Ali assisted by Rustum Shah and in London by partners Matthew Sapte and Farmida Bi assisted by Roy Neillie.

Rahail Ali, partner in Denton Wilde Sapte's Dubai office, commented:
"The Emirates sukuk is the first airline sukuk. Working regularly with leading sukuk houses, such as Dubai Islamic Bank and the rapidly expanding sukuk market, means that a lot more Sharia compliant securities will come to the capital markets."

Moinuddin Malim, Senior Vice-President, Head of Capital Markets and Asset Management at leading sukuk house Dubai Islamic Bank, commented:
''To maintain our leading position in the sukuk market, we need to work with professional advisers who deliver. Denton Wilde Sapte's delivery is superb. Their first class rating is richly deserved; reflecting their pre-eminent Islamic finance credentials and breadth of understanding of the sukuk/capital markets – imperatives for any successful sukuk issue."

Allen & Overy advised Emirates on English and Dubai law issues of the transaction.

Notes:

A sukuk is a sharia compliant Islamic bond. Denton Wilde Sapte has also represented the issuers and underwriters in other Sharia compliant Eurobonds, including the State of Qatar's issue of US$700 million trust certificates (sukuk al-ijara) (October 2003), Dubai's Department of Civil Aviation issue of US$1 billion trust certificates (sukuk al-ijara) (November 2004), the world's largest sukuk to date, and the Dubai Metals and Commodities Centre issue of US$200 million trust certificates (sukuk al-musharaka) (May 2005), the first listed and rated musharaka sukuk.