Several companies in Oman, including a real estate developer, are planning to issue sukuk or Islamic debt instrument. A real estate company has already approached the market regulator Capital Market Authority for floating a sukuk issue for its second phase development, said Abdullah Salim Al Salmi, executive president of the Capital Market Authority (CMA). However, he declined to name the real estate company that is trying to raise funds by way of a sukuk issue. Al Salmi said that the banks may face liquidity problems and the financial institutions have to issue either sukuk or bonds for raising funds to avoid an asset-liability mismatch. The CMA chief also called for Oman government to issue sovereign sukuk, including dollar-denominated issues. “That will definitely increase liquidity in the country. We need to create a secondary market for sukuk instrument.” (Times of Oman)