Exempting the listing of green bonds and sukuk from registration fees

The Board of Directors of the Securities and Commodities Authority, in its meeting held under the chairmanship of His Excellency Muhammad Ali Muhammad Al Shurafa Al Hammadi, approved a proposal for the Authority to exempt companies wishing to list their green or sustainability-related bonds or sukuk in a local market from registration fees for the year 2023.

The decision aims to shed light on highlighting the actions undertaken by the state according to a clear agenda to achieve the goals of sustainable development on more than one level, especially with regard to sustainable economic growth. His Excellency Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and President-designate of the COP28 Conference, praised this initiative, and said: The Green Bonds and Sukuk initiative launched by the Securities and Commodities Authority constitutes an important positive step that contributes to the promotion of sustainability practices, and the objectives of this initiative are in line with the agenda of the Conference. COP28 in the field of climate finance, and we look forward to all stakeholders around the world making more efforts to promote sustainability in the financial sector, especially as these initiatives contribute to achieving sustainable economic growth in the long term.

For his part, His Excellency Muhammad Ali Al-Shurafa said that the decision of the Board of Directors of the Securities and Commodities Authority comes in line with the announcement of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the State, “may God protect him,” declaring 2023 the “Year of Sustainability”, and supports the Authority’s efforts to encourage companies to direct Towards issuing green and sustainability-related bonds and sukuk to finance sustainable projects related to the environment and climate, and encourages investors and companies to adopt environmentally friendly investment opportunities.

It is noteworthy that the registration fee for bonds and sukuk for the purpose of listing – which the Board agreed yesterday to temporarily exempt from – is determined by the Chairman of the Authority’s Board of Directors Decision No. (32 / R.M) of 2018 regarding the due technical service fees at a rate of (0.01%) of the value of the issue and a maximum (30,000) dirhams.

It is noteworthy that the Authority issued in February of this year its Decision No. (21 / R.M) for the year 2023 AD regarding the regulation of green bonds and sukuk related to sustainability, as this decision allowed public shareholding companies to issue “green” bonds and sukuk whose entire subscription proceeds are used to finance or Refinancing environmentally friendly sustainable projects such as (renewable energy projects, energy efficiency projects, pollution prevention and control projects, environmentally sustainable management projects for living natural resources and land use, land and water environmental diversity conservation projects, clean transport projects, sustainable water and wastewater management projects health), as well as corporate issuance of bonds and sukuk related to sustainability, through which the sustainability goals specified by the issuing company are achieved within a predetermined period of time to contribute to the achievement of key performance indicators, and bear structural and/or financial features and characteristics subject to change depending on the issuer’s achievement of sustainability goals. .