Middle East

First Abu Dhabi Bank's global head of loan capital markets, a veteran in the syndicated loans market, has resigned from the bank after five years in the role.

Islamic Development Bank on Wednesday priced a five year sukuk bond, coming to market alongside Samba, a Saudi Arabia based bank. The deals are the latest in a flood of Middle East issuance that has raised $13.35bn this week alone.

Three borrowers from the Middle East came to market on Tuesday, raising a combined $3.35bn from five tranches across the curve. The deals come on top of a period of heavy supply, including Abu Dhabi’s $10bn triple trancher on Monday.

DP World has become the third Middle Eastern borrower to launch a sustainable finance framework — a preparatory move ahead of a debut green bond. More issuers from the Middle East are expected to follow suit.

Abu Dhabi printed a huge $10bn bond on Monday with no roadshow and a 30 year tranche that was 20bp tighter in spread than its last bond of the same maturity printed in 2017. But though the deal seems to have been triumphant for Abu Dhabi, the notes were around 2bp wider on Wednesday and investors are fretting that large EM supply is causing some indigestion in the market.

Bankers brought a flood of Middle East bond supply to market on Tuesday, with four separate issuers — the Kingdom of Bahrain, DP World, National Bank of Fujairah and Islamic Development Bank — all announcing guidance for deals. The notes follow an already heavy week of supply from the Gulf, with Abu Dhabi having printed a $10bn triple trancher on the same day.

The National Bank of Oman (NBO) has closed a $300m syndicated loan, arranged by regional lenders. The loan was oversubscribed, revealing a reasonable amount of international demand for Omani debt despite a year of ratings downgrades and project postponements.

The Emirate of Abu Dhabi ended a two year absence from capital markets on Monday with a triple trancher, mirroring the tenors it used in its last trip to the market in 2017.

DP World, the company responsible for operating Dubai’s ports, is buying back two of its outstanding bonds, becoming the fifth EM borrower to do so in September.

Challenges are rife across the banking industry in the Gulf. As banks struggle to keep up with technological innovation and the growth of foreign competition, domestic players told GlobalCapital what needs to be done to combat these existential threats.

Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company of Saudi Arabia, is confident that its exceptional financial position will allow its IPO to withstand geopolitical shocks such as the drone attack on the company’s oil facilities last Saturday, write Sam Kerr, Mariam Meskin and Francesca Young.

Last weekend’s attack on Saudi oil facilities drove up the oil price and caused a rush to safe haven assets, but investors say they expect the turbulence to be short-lived.