Price and total cost
Istisna sukuk links distributions to its underlying Islamic contract and should show how assets, cash flows and investor rights fit together.
The prospectus should explain how that particular structure affects tradability, credit exposure and redemption at maturity.
Ownership and risk
With Istisna sukuk, Sharia screening does not replace investment analysis: asset quality, liquidity, valuation, concentration and fees still determine financial risk.
Screening methodology, purification and ongoing review should be clear enough to explain what happens when an asset stops qualifying.
Documents that matter
Sukuk give investors rights linked to an asset, usufruct, project or investment arrangement rather than only a conventional unsecured interest-bearing debt claim.
The prospectus should identify the originator, issuer or SPV, underlying assets, source of distributions and investor recourse after a default.
Sharia compliance
Asset-backed and asset-based sukuk can produce very different rights in insolvency, so investors should not infer direct ownership merely from the word sukuk.
Distributions can arise from rent, sale profit, partnership profit or agency investment returns according to the structure used.
Early exit and default
Sukuk documents should state what legal or beneficial rights investors have over the assets, usufruct or project cash flows. Economically asset-based certificates do not necessarily give the same recourse as structures with stronger ownership rights.
At maturity, investors should understand the purchase undertaking, sale or liquidation mechanism that is expected to fund redemption. Repayment depends on the transaction documents and counterparty strength, not on the word “sukuk” itself.
Specialised external source
This reference deals directly with sukuk structures and Islamic capital-market issues.
World Bank – Sukuk and Islamic capital-market structures