Middle East Loans

Saudi Electricity Co (SEC), the largest utility company in the Middle East and North Africa, signed its largest international syndicated loan of $1.75bn on Wednesday with eight banks.

The spat between Qatar and its GCC neighbours has reared its ugly head in the capital markets, with the possibility of Abu Dhabi informally boycotting Qatari-owned banks on the table. But neither side is likely to really feel the pinch.

First Abu Dhabi Bank’s head of loan distribution Steve Perry has left the bank, five months after he joined the capital markets team as part of First Gulf Bank and National Abu Dhabi Bank’s merger.

The continued severance of diplomatic ties between Qatar and its neighbours is a growing risk to the country’s banks’ capital raising efforts, which have the heaviest reliance on overseas funding in the Gulf.

The National Bank of Ras Al-Khaimah (Rakbank) launched its first syndicated loan on Tuesday for $250m with a three year tenor.

Dubai’s state-owned energy group Emirates National Oil Co (Enoc) has secured a $500m revolving credit facility from a club of seven banks to fund its growth plans for Dubai's coming Expo 2020.

Bahrain Islamic bank (BisB) has launched a $50m murabaha syndicated facility, making its first entry into the loan market, according to bankers in the region.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (Adnoc) is in talks with international and Middle Eastern banks about a syndicated loan of up to $5bn, which is understood to be very tightly priced.

Qatari banks have been involved in several syndicated loans in the past month, despite the stand-off between the nation and six other Middle Eastern states.

Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) has closed the first tranche of its $700m export credit agency (ECA) covered facility taken out in April to finance its Line 6 expansion project.

Standard Bank is planning to launch a $750m syndicated loan, and hopes to drum up enough interest to enlarge it to $1.25bn.

Etisalat has been given until Friday to transfer all its shares in Etisalat Nigeria to a syndicate of 13 Nigerian banks, after talks on restructuring a $1.2bn loan from 2013 fell through.