Middle East Loans

Dubai is closing in on loans of as much as $3bn to fund its airport expansion, but bankers have said that pricing remains an area of negotiation.

Loan bankers are demanding clarity on the true ownership of the 19.5% stake in Rosneft privatised at the end of last year, as Intesa Sanpaolo prepares to syndicate the €5.2bn loan it has provided to back the deal, write Dan Alderson and Jon Hay.

Saudi Basic Industries Corp (Sabic) has reopened discussions with banks for a loan of as much as $2bn, having put funding plans on hold last year.

If “keeping one’s cards close to one’s chest” in negotiations while also acknowledging the need for market certainty seems like a peculiarly Brexit paradox, try managing the funding plans of a Gulf state as it tries to deal with a budget deficit.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has bolstered its loan syndication and sales effort in London with a hire as the bank looks to establish a stronger foothold in the Europe, Middle East and Africa market.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region looks set to provide a hotbed of loans market activity in the first half of 2017, with bankers sizing up a strong pipeline out of Oman as the sultanate looks to address a budget deficit.

Oman Oil and Bank Muscat are set to kick off a rash of loans in the sultanate in the coming months, with a number of state owned entities in discussion with lenders as the government looks to address a budget deficit.

Dubai is close to picking banks for a $3bn loan to fund its airport expansion, according to loan officials, while flydubai is also in talks with banks. But discussion of a deal to back the emirate’s metro development plans are said to have “gone quiet” as the state seeks to avoid deal congestion.

Four European lenders have turned down a $2bn loan for National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), while local banks are starting to return to secondary markets for the first time in a year — signs that the Middle Eastern loan market could see a different set of banks driving it in 2017. Elly Whittaker reports.

National Bank of Abu Dhabi signed a $2bn three year loan on Tuesday, cementing the bank group for its $175bn merger with First Gulf Bank, though some key European banks turned down a role on the deal.

Etihad Airways has issued the first ever Schuldschein for a Middle Eastern company, increasing the deal from €150m to €209m in syndication with strong demand from European and Asian commercial banks.

Property firm Ezdan of Qatar has rallied 10 banks to participate in its $460m Islamic loan refinancing. All were Middle Eastern except HSBC and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China.