Middle East

Favourable funding conditions should pave the way for an increasing amount of Turkish mortgage backed covered bond supply over the next few months, said Moody’s. Covered bonds will reduce Turkish banks’ asset-liability funding mismatch and help diversify their funding, the agency said.

Saudi Arabia will pay a margin of between 100bp-110bp for its loan of up to $10bn, according to a banker on the deal.

Luxury hotel complex Atlantis the Palm, is syndicating an $850m-equivalent loan to pay for the next stage of development for the five star resort.

The Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX) is moving forward with plans to broaden its China offering with equity futures for mainland companies. Meanwhile, Bank of China Hong Kong (BoCHK) has received approval to open a branch in Brunei, the first for a Chinese bank.

Bank Muscat has mandated eight banks for a Reg S dollar benchmark bond.

The Emirate of Abu Dhabi has mandated three banks to roadshow dollar benchmark, jumping into the market for its first bond since 2009 ahead of up to $20bn of potential sovereign supply from the region this year.

The $250m loan for Gulf schools operator GEMS Education has been signed with mostly Middle Eastern banks in the syndicate.

The latest Turkish corporate loan for Borusan Holding may have failed to attract international banks, but there are more deals in the pipeline, bankers say.

Alternatifbank’s new tier two note rallied a further 100bp this week after an execution strategy which saw the leads revise pricing by 100bp, seeming to vindicate criticism from rival bankers for starting pricing too wide.

Poland this week tackled head on the ghosts of bonds past and has reopened the ill-fated 2036 euro note it printed in January.

Alternatifbank revised pricing by a whopping 100bp to print its "debut" note on Tuesday, drawing plenty of criticism from rival bankers for starting pricing too wide. But the leads defended their ‘inclusive’ pricing strategy.

Only domestic banks joined Borusan Holding’s $400m loan in syndication, although lead banks had hoped the deal would entice a global syndicate.