Clifford Chance advised the arranging banks behind the world’s largest-ever SUKUK for the Malaysian government – a $1.25 billion sovereign debt offering written in compliance with Sharia principles. For the first time, the SUKUK was to be marketed globally, and particularly into the US – which meant that it had to be compliant both with the principles of Islamic finance, and also with the regulatory requirements of the international financial markets. The deal, coordinated through Clifford Chance’s Dubai office, was one of the largest and most high-profile Islamic transactions of the year and, despite its complexity, was delivered in just three weeks.