Middle East Bonds

Abu Dhabi’s state-owned investment firm Mubadala priced its first international benchmark bond in three years this week, receiving around $5bn in orders for a $750m eight year deal. Debt bankers on and off the deal clashed over the starting point but the bookrunners argued the transaction had successfully allowed Mubadala to maintain a presence in the market, reprice its bond curve and secure its status as a high grade issuer.

Turkish Finansbank, 77.23% owned by the National Bank of Greece, has picked Citigroup, HSBC, Morgan Stanley and Standard Chartered Bank to run a series of investor calls with international investors on Thursday. A benchmark 144A/Reg S note may follow.

Saudi Telecom Company, one of the largest phone operators in the Gulf region, looks set to hit the sukuk market with a debut deal. Bankers said it has mandated JP Morgan, Standard Chartered and National Commercial Bank's investment arm NCB Capital to manage the sale.

Abu Dhabi’s state owned investment firm Mubadala priced its first international benchmark bond in three years this week, receiving around $5bn in orders for a $750m eight year deal. Debt bankers on and off the deal clashed over the starting point. But the bookrunners argued the transaction had successfully allowed Mubadala to maintain a presence in the market, reprice its bond curve and secure its status as a high grade issuer.

The Dubai government’s $750m sukuk has held its ground on the break above re-offer at 100.05/100.10 after the emirate priced the note inside guidance late on Tuesday.

Frontier markets investment boutique Exotix has lost two senior officials from its Dubai office.

Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa) starts investor meetings on Thursday ahead of a prospective dollar deal. Some of the issuer's bonds trade at a high cash price, meaning a select few deals are the best indicators of Taqa's curve, said bankers on the deal.

Simon Putt, formerly BNP Paribas’s head of MENA DCM, has joined Saudi Arabian Al Rajhi Capital as head of DCM after over a year out of the market.

Mubadala, Abu Dhabi's state owned investment group, is preparing to price a $750m eight year dollar bond on Wednesday afternoon. Its starting spread struck some debt bankers as cheap. But high cash prices on Mubadala's outstanding paper have kept its secondary spreads higher than fair value, and bankers on the new bond argued they had to take this into account.

The Dubai government’s $750m sukuk held its ground on the break above re-offer at 100.05/100.10 on Wednesday after the emirate priced the note inside guidance late on Tuesday.

The Dubai government is returning to the dollar sukuk market for the first time since January last year with a drive-by 15 year benchmark — its longest tenor offering in the asset class to date.

The Central Bank of Bahrain sold its BD36m ($96m) of short term salam sukuk at a new tight print of 0.75%, but with few orders than for its previous issue.