Middle East

Turkey and Bahrain took to primary markets to raise bond funding on Tuesday. But the appearance of two high yield credits has not driven unqualified enthusiasm for all borrowers in that asset class.

Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank (NCB), the largest financial institution in the kingdom, has mandated banks to arrange a tier one dollar sukuk. The deal may act as a prelude to a potential bond sale by the sovereign, which bankers say could happen as early as this week.

Saudi Arabia has secured an export financing agreement with Korea’s export credit agency and trade insurance corporation. The deal, which will bolster trade between the two, is the kingdom’s second ECA-backed deal.

Junk-rated emerging market sovereigns Benin and Oman sold bonds this week, with market participants saying their new issue premiums were minimal. However, bankers think total activity across CEEMEA over the last two weeks has been “underwhelming”.

Rating: Baa3/—/BBB-

Turkish bank Yapi Kredi launched a tier two dollar bond on Thursday, with demand strong enough for bookrunners to attempt to squeeze pricing. But this is an unorthodox start to the year for Turkish bonds with the traditional curtain raiser from the sovereign nowhere to be seen.

Energean, the London-listed oil and gas company, has signed a $700m loan to develop a gas field off the shore of Israel, as the company enters the final stretch in having the field up and running.

Turkey’s Yapi Kredi, Russia’s Credit Bank of Moscow and Banque Ouest Africaine de Banque Ouest Africaine de Développement have all approached investors this week to sound out interest in hard currency bonds.

The Sultanate of Oman's return to debt markets is proof to some that the market is wide open for high yielding emerging market issuers. The sovereign mandated banks for a dollar deal as investors, hunting for yield, appear undeterred by volatility in the US rates market.

A burst of mandates on Monday confirmed what many market participants had expected: a rise in emerging market corporate bond supply.

The blockade imposed on Qatar by its Gulf neighbours in 2017 was lifted this week, with a gradual easing of all restrictions expected in the coming months. However, bankers and investors are skeptical that the move's "short-lived" effects will have a significant impact on regional capital markets, which have demonstrated resilience in recent years.

Emerging markets issuers of all flavours ignored convention and stormed into primary bond markets this week, with great success. Renewed warnings about increasing debt ratios in emerging nations were no match for an extraordinarily supportive technical picture as investors piled into deals — even as Democratic victories in US Senate run-offs pushed rates higher. Mariam Meskin and Oliver West report.