Arada Prices $400M Five-Year Sukuk at 8.875% in First UAE Property Debt Sale Since February
Orders topped $700 million, twice the deal size, letting the Dubai developer price below guidance and fund a tender for up to $180 million of existing notes.
Arada has sold $400 million of five-year sukuk at a profit rate of 8.875%, the Dubai developer's return to international debt markets and the first debt sale by a UAE real estate firm since regional conflict began in February.
Orders exceeded $700 million, with demand peaking at twice the issue size. That allowed the company to price below initial guidance of 9.375%. The senior unsecured notes carry expected ratings of BB- from Fitch and B1 from Moody's, and are listed on the London Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Dubai. Arada announced the offering in a statement on Friday.
Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud, the company's executive vice chairman, said the sale demonstrated investor confidence in Arada and in the wider UAE real estate market despite the regional disruption.
Part of the proceeds will fund a capped tender offer of as much as $180 million for Arada's outstanding sukuk. The company expects the transaction to be largely leverage-neutral. It sits inside a debt management strategy running ahead of a $411.7 million sukuk maturity in June 2027; that existing paper carries a coupon of 8.125%.
Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, Emirates NBD Capital, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Mashreq and Standard Chartered Bank acted as joint global coordinators. Arab Bank, Arqaam Capital, Bank ABC, Goldman Sachs International, JPMorgan Securities, Sharjah Islamic Bank and Warba Bank were joint lead managers and bookrunners.
Arada was founded in 2017 and has moved beyond the UAE into Australia, the UK, Syria and Saudi Arabia. Its pipeline of existing and planned projects is valued at more than $50.4 billion, or AED 185 billion. The developer has sold more than 20,000 units in the UAE since launch, worth upwards of $10.9 billion (AED 40 billion), and has completed more than 17,000 units worldwide.
The pricing follows a $450 million sukuk in September 2025 that drew more than $2 billion in orders and was more than four times covered. After that listing, Arada had $1.5 billion of sukuk on Nasdaq Dubai across three issuances.
The new notes cost more than the 8.125% paper they partly retire, a gap that sets the current price of capital for Gulf property borrowers. Buying back debt now, with the June 2027 maturity still two years out, trims the refinancing risk Arada would otherwise carry into a market that has already shown how fast conditions can turn.
