DUBAI (Reuters) – Banque Saudi Fransi sold $700 million in five-year bonds on Wednesday in the first public dollar bonds out of the Gulf in nearly a month, a bank document showed.
The bonds were sold at 170 basis points (bps) over U.S. Treasuries (UST), tightened from initial guidance of around 195 bps after orders topped $3 billion.
The senior unsecured bonds are expected to be rated “A2” by Moody’s and “BBB+” by Fitch.
Citi, JPMorgan, HSBC, Merrill Lynch International, Standard Chartered and Saudi Fransi Capital arranged the deal.
Dubai’s Mashreqbank this week hired banks to arrange the sale of U.S. dollar-denominated 10-1/4 year Tier 2 bonds non-callable for 5-1/4 years.
Bond issuance from the oil-rich Gulf has plummeted this year amid expected national surpluses, rising interest rates and market volatility.
Ad: Save every day with Amazon Deals: Check out today's daily deals on Amazon.
But some issuers have pounced on windows of relative calm in the markets to issue.
(Reporting by Yousef Saba in Dubai; Editing by Matthew Lewis)