Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Qatar Islamic Bank SAQ, the Gulf state's biggest lender complying with Muslim banking rules, hired HSBC Holdings plc and Credit Suisse Group AG to sell Islamic bonds, two bankers familiar with the transaction said.

The Islamic bond, or sukuk, offer is in its early stages, said one of the bankers, who declined to be identified as the terms aren’t set. A spokesman for Qatar Islamic declined to comment when called by Bloomberg News today.

As Qatari banks suffered from losses related to the global economic slowdown, the country’s government bolstered them by taking equity stakes and agreeing to buy the banks’ real-estate portfolios of about $4.12 billion. Qatar Islamic said Dec. 31 it sold a 5 percent stake to Qatar Investment Authority, the country’s wealth fund, for 956 million riyals ($263 million).

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