Product Factsheet
Profit-Participating Notes
Income-generating investment notes in the trade activity of established, medium-sized international companies. Listed, asset-backed and Shari’a-compliant, with the upside of the trade and the discipline of a bond-like instrument.
“Equity returns for bond-like risks.”
01 Programme terms
- Return target
- 10–16% per annum, net to the investor. A target, not a guarantee.
- Tenor
- 1–3 yrs Short to medium term, limiting exposure to market shifts.
- Distributions
- Quarterly Linked to the revenues or gross profits of the underlying trade.
- Minimum subscription
- USD 100,000 per investor, per issue
- Master programme
- USD 60 million
- Deal sizes
- USD 3 million to USD 12 million each
- Investment vehicle
- Cordoba Capital Markets Jersey PCC, a protected cell company incorporated under the laws of Jersey, registered number 154059, of 44 The Esplanade, St Helier, Jersey JE4 9WG
- Issuer
- Each series is issued from its own bankruptcy-remote, segregated protected cell of the PCC, recognised under Jersey law with its own registered number. The cell enters into a Shari’a-compliant investment management agreement (mudaraba) with the company requiring working capital, for a defined trade activity.
- Programme manager
- Cordoba Capital Markets Limited, registered in the United Kingdom under number 14557638
- Listing
- An application may be made to Wiener Börse AG (the Vienna Stock Exchange) for a series to be admitted to trading, with the applicable Final Terms published on the exchange’s website. A series may instead be listed elsewhere, or be unlisted; the Final Terms for each tranche say which.
- Form
- Certificates, in the language of the offering documents
- Purpose of finance
- Asset-backed trade finance and working capital
- Sectors
- Agribusiness, education, manpower services, real estate, healthcare, oil and gas
- Geographies
- United Kingdom, Singapore, Italy, United Arab Emirates
02 Strategy
Excellent upside potential with the protections of a bond-like instrument. What that rests on:
- Exceptional due diligence. Highest standards of internal governance and financial controls, proven management teams and demonstrated track records.
- Profitable, cash-generative investees with highly solvent assets.
- Tightly specified trade activity. Investor capital is asset-backed, unlike most sukuk.
- Exposure only to the underlying trade, not to all activities of the business.
- Jersey-regulated PCC. Exceptional investor protection, maximum efficiency, minimum cost.
- Capital deployed only under a strict capital call process, through ringfenced accounts.
- Ongoing performance monitoring against treasury controls, cover ratios and reporting metrics.
- Diversification for private credit portfolios, through international trade opportunities with an outperforming income yield.
03 Investment thesis
Cordoba manages an investment programme of asset-backed trade activities of medium-sized, high-performance companies trading in the global real economy across diverse sectors. The platform offers investors exposure to strictly defined and risk-managed trading activities of specialised, market-leading companies with ambitious growth plans.
Through the proprietary listed Profit-Participating Note, our trade finance and working capital solution generates premium yields linked directly to either the revenues or the gross profits of portfolio companies. The structure mitigates downside risk while allowing significant upside participation.
Banks and private credit managers offer expensive, collateralised, fixed-interest loans to medium-sized companies. PPNs offer greater flexibility to the private company seeking trade finance and working capital, while being significantly more attractive to the investor. Cordoba has a first-mover advantage in addressing this market inefficiency: no other institution has addressed low-cost, Shari’a-compliant, risk-sharing finance in listed note form.
04 Portfolio characteristics
Portfolio companies are mature and stable, with experienced management, strong internal governance and demonstrated financial and operational performance. Typically:
- Turnover
- USD 10 million to USD 100 million per annum
- Growth
- CAGR of 50% over a five-year period
- Gross margins
- Above 20%, held consistently at scale
- Cash collection
- Near 100% against the financed asset
- Debtor days
- Mostly between 30 and 60
- Financed assets
- Highly solvent or typically appreciating, so investor funds are secured against high-quality assets
The live investment programme (the specific companies, the amounts sought and the target return on each) changes as deals are originated and filled. It is not published here. Qualified investors can see the current book through the Investor Portal, or by writing to info@ccmkts.com.
05 About Cordoba
Cordoba Capital Markets is a UK- and Jersey-based investment programme manager and corporate finance boutique, founded by pioneers of the Islamic finance industry.
Our vision is to transform the financing of the real economy, focusing on medium-sized international companies in the USD 121 trillion ESG economy and the USD 4–5 trillion Islamic economy.
Our mission is an investment platform that prepares and raises working capital and trade finance for international companies through the issuance of notes that are listed, asset-backed, income-generating and Shari’a-compliant.
PPNs are the proprietary intellectual capital of Cordoba Capital Markets. They address a multi-trillion dollar gap between the supply of and demand for working capital and trade finance. Target companies are underbanked by traditional lenders, and no other financial institution has addressed low-cost, Shari’a-compliant, risk-sharing finance in listed note form. Cordoba has exceptional market access and is highly selective in the opportunities it takes.
06 Senior leadership
Harris Irfan
Co-Founder and CEO
30+ years in investment banking and Islamic finance. Founder of Deutsche Bank Islamic Finance and CEO of its Islamic subsidiary. Former Global Head of Islamic Finance at Barclays.
Amir Khayat
Co-Founder and CFO
ACA qualified. Finance executive at a former FTSE 100, and at private-equity backed and SME companies, since training with KPMG. Expertise spans M&A, compliance, reporting and taxation.
Ashley Freeman
General Counsel
30+ years in banking, capital markets and Islamic finance law. Former General Counsel of the Central Bank of Bahrain. Founder of Clifford Chance Islamic Finance.
07 Risk
Your capital is at risk. You may get back less than you invest, and you may get back nothing at all. Returns are targets, not guarantees, and past performance is not a guide to future performance.
Profit-participating notes are not deposits and are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Distributions depend on the performance of the underlying trade and may be reduced, deferred or not made at all. The notes may be difficult to sell before maturity; a listing does not by itself create a market. Investments are concentrated in a small number of privately held companies, and the failure of one is material. Where the trade is denominated in a currency other than your own, currency movement may reduce your return.
08 Important information
This factsheet is a summary for information only. It is not an offer to sell, or an invitation to buy, any security, and it is not investment, legal or tax advice or a personal recommendation.
Any offer of notes is made solely through the offering documents for the relevant issue and only to persons to whom such an offer may lawfully be made. Those documents govern in every respect. Where anything here differs from them, they prevail. Terms described here are indicative and may differ for a particular issue.
Jersey. The Jersey Financial Services Commission has given, and has not withdrawn, its consent under Articles 2 and 4 of the Control of Borrowing (Jersey) Order 1958 to the issuance of shares in each issuer and to the issuance of the certificates. It must be distinctly understood that, in giving that consent, neither the registrar of companies nor the Commission takes any responsibility for the financial soundness of the PCC or of any issuer, or for the correctness of any statement made or opinion expressed with regard to either. The notes are not a collective investment fund for the purposes of the Collective Investment Funds (Jersey) Law 1988, and are not regarded by the Commission as suitable for any investor other than one who is financially sophisticated and whose asset base is substantial enough to sustain the loss.
United Kingdom. This material is communicated only to, and directed only at, relevant persons: investment professionals within article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005, persons within article 49(2)(a) to (d) of that Order, and persons to whom it may otherwise lawfully be communicated. It must not be acted on by anyone else.
European Economic Area. Offered only to qualified investors as defined in the Prospectus Regulation, and not to any retail investor; no PRIIPs key information document has been prepared. United States. Not registered under the US Securities Act of 1933; offered and sold outside the United States under Regulation S.
Shari’a. The structure has been reviewed and approved for compliance with the principles of Shari’a by the Shari’a advisers to the issuer. Do not rely on that approval in deciding whether to invest; consult your own Shari’a advisers.
Before investing, read the offering documents in full and take your own independent advice on whether the investment is suitable for you.
Finance for the real economy.
Investment with impact.
Take it with you
The printed factsheet
Download the PDF. Three pages, A4, the same content as this page.
Related
The legals
Terms of Use, including the full risk warning.
Privacy Policy: what happens to personal data.
Corporate finance: the note, for businesses.