Middle East

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.

Iraq made an impressive return to the capital markets on Wednesday with a perfectly timed trade that enabled the issuer to leverage off its recent military success in Mosul, support from the IMF and higher oil prices to borrow five year money below 7%.

On Wednesday, the UK’s Institute of Directors, the organisation that represents company directors and business leaders, became the latest lobby group to voice its concern at the Financial Conduct Authority’s proposal to create a new premium listing category for sovereign-owned companies.

Vakifbank has launched its second round of refinancing with its pricing 10bp lower than its $967m facility in April, mirroring Akbank’s new loan margins.

Akbank has sold its first mortgage-backed covered bond. The deal, which will fund green projects, was privately placed with the European Investment Bank.

Iraq had revised pricing to 7% area for its long awaited dollar bond on Wednesday after the low-7% starting point prompted debate among deal watchers.

Türk Eximbank’s second entry into the syndicated loan market this year has been a success, with 23 banks signing for $640m on Tuesday — more than double the initial size when the deal was launched in June.

With a dearth of supply in emerging market bonds this week, investors have been keenly awaiting the arrival of Iraq's first public bond for more than a decade.

Pricing on Akbank’s one year loan refinancing dipped by 10bp as political turmoil in Turkey appears to have died down since president Recep Erdoğan won a referendum to consolidate power in April.

Not only is Iraq expected to have the sole attention of the market when it opens books for its new bond on Wednesday, but it will offer investors a rare chance to lock in government debt at a decent yield in a market more barren than the Atacama Desert. In short, bankers are expecting a blowout.

Dana Gas on Monday shelved an exchange offer to investors in favour of litigation, which the company warns could take 10 years to resolve, after members of an ad hoc committee of bondholders repeatedly refused to engage with the issuer.

United Biscuits, the maker of McVitie’s biscuits and Jacob's crackers, is to sign a £725m syndicated loan facility in the coming weeks to refinance a loan taken out in 2015 to fund its acquisition by Turkey’s Yıldız Holding.