The Sukuk bond, issued by an Irish special purpose company, marks the first Islamic finance issuance pursuant to section 267N of the Irish Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 (as amended) and raised over US$ 150 million.
In 2010, Irish tax legislation was amended to introduce the concept of ‘specified financial transactions’ into Irish law. The amendments, set out in section 267N, were intended to facilitate financial transactions structured to be Sharia compliant, thereby encouraging the use of Irish companies when structuring cross-border Islamic finance issuances.