Middle East Bonds

Turkish conglomerate Doğuş Group looks set to become the first Turkish corporate borrower to issue a dollar sukuk, having applied to the country’s Capital Markets Board to issue up to $400m to foreign investors.

The Central Bank of Bahrain sold its BD36m ($95.5m) of short term sukuk al salam with more orders than last month’s issuance.

Saudi Arabia’s National Petrochemical Co (Petrochem) has sold SR1.2bn ($319.9m) in its debut sukuk, making it the busiest six month period ever for Saudi sukuk issuers according to IFIS figures.

United Arab Emirates bank Al Hilal tightened guidance on its benchmark tier one perpetual sukuk to 5.75% area and capped the size of the deal at $500m. The bank expects to price the deal, which is the first Islamic tier one out of the UAE since Dubai Islamic Bank brought $1bn in March last year, as early as Tuesday.

Turkish participation bank Albaraka Turk (rated BB by Standard & Poor’s) has given revised official guidance of 6.25% area on its five year benchmark sukuk, with pricing expected to follow on Tuesday.

Turkish banks pushed on apace with international funding drives this week, despite rising fears over Iraq knocking some froth off their recent strong rally. Isbank and Kuveyt Türk priced well with benchmark bonds and sukuk, while Albaraka Türk completed its sukuk meetings and Ziraat Bankasi announced plans to go on the road with a long-awaited inaugural dollar deal.

This week’s CEEMEA and Latin American bond deals were trading up across the board on Friday, regardless of whether they offered chunky or non-existent new issue concessions, reports GlobalCapital. And while relative value rather than fundamentals drive investors’ decisions, the emerging market rally is only going to run and run, said bankers.

Banque Saudi Fransi’s SR2bn ($533.2m) Basel III compliant sukuk this week has taken Saudi Islamic bond issuance this year close to the levels reached in the first half of 2012, the industry’s high point.

The United Kingdom has pulled ahead decisively in the lop-sided race to issue the first Western sovereign sukuk, writes Dan Alderson. Tiny rival Luxembourg could only look on this week as UK borrowing officials roadshowed the groundbreaking offering across six Gulf and Asian money centres in three days — bolstering London’s bid for regional leadership in Islamic finance.

Commercial Bank of Qatar on Tuesday priced its first dollar deal in more than two years, flat to its existing curve, after attracting more than $3bn of demand.

National Bank of Ras Al-Khaimah (Rakbank) sold a $500m 3.25% five year bond at 160bp over mid-swaps on Tuesday afternoon, going straight from the initial guidance of 170bp area to pricing. Order books reached $1.6bn at their close.

Isbank priced the longest dated senior bond from a Turkish financial in nearly 18 months on Wednesday, pushing out to seven years for its dollar market return.