Middle East

Last year was a record in terms of number of downgrades of emerging market sovereigns, with another four added this year — Turkey, Mozambique, El Salvador and Costa Rica. But Société Générale on Friday became the latest firm to criticise the ratings agencies for their pessimism.

Rating: Baa2/BBB+

Rating: A2/A+

Turkey made an opportunistic move on Thursday to reopen its recent 10 year bond for another $1bn. The $4.7bn book size showed there is no let-up in demand for Turkish sovereign debt.

With four big loan deals already in the market for Omani borrowers this year and more expected, bankers are concerned that lenders could fast run up against country limits. With a big hole to plug in Oman's budget, spillover to the bond market looks inevitable, writes Bianca Boorer.

Plenty of demand enabled Equate Petrochemical to aggressively revise pricing to print a restrained $500m sukuk on Monday from a book that reached $4.2bn before it was reconciled. Kipco followed on Thursday with an equally strong deal.

Oman’s sovereign wealth fund is in the market for a $600m loan to support its acquisition of a stake in Oman Telecommunications, and is tapping Asian liquidity for the first time. With several Gulf nations making efforts to contain budget deficits, including by selling assets, borrowers from the region could be ones to watch. Shruti Chaturvedi reports.

Kuwait Projects Company (Kipco) attracted more than $1.4bn of orders for a new 10 year dollar deal after tightening pricing to 4.75% area.

Turkey has made an opportunistic move to reopen its recent 10 year bond with a tap to raise an expected $1bn.

Strong demand from local and Asian investors allowed Ahli Bank Qatar to pay a minimal new issue premium for its second dollar market outing on Wednesday.

Even heavy indications from US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen the central bank will raise interest rates at its next meeting were not enough to derail the strong primary market in emerging market bonds.

Ahli Bank Qatar emerged with pricing for a new five year senior dollar benchmark on Wednesday.