Middle East Loans

Arrangers have not set a closing date for the $1bn loan for the Sultanate of Oman, on which pricing has been widened recently, but bankers hope to close the deal before year end.

Commercial Bank of Qatar has signed its $1bn loan refinancing and increased the deal from $800m in syndication, but bankers said it was fortunate to have got the deal done in time before Middle Eastern loan margins rise.

The Egyptian loan market is showing signs of recovery with deals from Banque Misr and National Bank of Egypt in recent months. Bankers say there is more to come in 2016.

The Sultanate of Oman has widened the pricing of its $1bn loan by 10bp to encourage banks to lend, after the sovereign was downgraded by Standard & Poor's in November.

Vivalto Santé, the French private health service provider, has announced €228m of loans for its leveraged buyout by Mubadala Development Co, the Abu Dhabi Government owned investment and development company.

Egypt’s Banque Misr signed its $250m three year loan on Sunday with five lead banks.

Kuwait petrochemical firm Equate is scheduled to complete its $6bn loan this week, while Oman and Qatar continue syndicating their sovereign loans.

Doha Bank is syndicating a $500m two year loan and commitments are due in mid-December. But at least three bankers have told GlobalCapital that they think the pricing is tight.

Eqypt’s Banque Misr is finalising a $250m three year loan and will sign on Sunday, according to a banker close to the deal.

Kuwait petrochemicals firm Equate is scheduled to complete syndication of $6bn of loans this week.

Abu Dhabi based Gulf Marine Services (GMS) has signed a $620m loan refinancing and lowered the cost of the loans.

Emirates Global Aluminium launched syndication on Tuesday for a $4.9bn seven year loan facility, comprising both conventional and Islamic financing, to refinance existing loans.