Middle East

Sekerbank is holding investor meetings for a covered bond which will be the bank’s first ever publicly syndicated deal targeted at investors in the private sector mainly in Europe. The deal takes advantage of the amended law which allows for greater use of derivatives in the cover pool.

The sixth offshore RMB clearing bank appointment of the year was unveiled on Tuesday, when the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) announced that it had picked Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) Doha Branch as the renminbi clearing bank for Qatar. The move is the first such appointment in the Middle East and follows similar announcements this year in London, Frankfurt, Seoul, Paris and Luxembourg.

Despite the recent sell off in emerging market credits, investors remain interested in Turkish bank private placements, according to MTN dealers.

Turkey’s updated covered bond law is credit positive, Moody’s said on Monday, after the country’s Capital Market Board announced the changes last week. However, the timetable for the first Turkish euro denominated mortgage backed benchmark has been pushed back after the lira hit new lows.

The Turkish covered bond law will be updated any moment now, paving the way for the first publicly syndicated euro denominated, mortgage backed covered bond. VakıfBank, Işbank, Ziraat Bank, and Akbank are in the frame, but the odds-on favourite to bring the first benchmark sized deal is Garanti Bank, which may surface in the first quarter.

Vakifbank is yet to mandate banks for its next Eurobond deal, but is “working closely” with Unicredit and Natixis to bring what could be Turkey’s first ever mortgage-backed covered bond transaction, said a funding official at the borrower. Those banks have not been officially mandated for the covered bond.

Garanti Bank is still looking at the possibility of issuing mortgage backed covered bonds, although the market backdrop has soured since it started. The bank’s board has approved issuance of up to €1bn and a recent rise in spreads could help bring in new accounts, an official told EuroWeek Emerging Markets.

Political unrest against the backdrop of a broader emerging market sell-off could yet prove a toxic combination for Turkey if the government fails to address key economic imbalances, says Lucy Fitzgeorge-Parker.

Turkey’s banks have taken advantage of global liquidity to explore a slew of new funding options. The trend looks set to survive the mid-summer emerging market sell-off. Lucy Fitzgeorge-Parker reports.

Bahrain began a roadshow this week to gauge demand for a conventional dollar deal. Analysts expect its borrowing needs to rise sharply in order to stem a growing fiscal deficit, but this worrying trend could also turn some investors away.

Denizbank launched the first tranche of its SME-backed covered bond on Thursday, and placed the bonds with three supranational agencies.

Turkey’s Denizbank is expected to price its SME covered bond within the month and there are hopes other issuers will follow. While the SME product is unlikely to be seen as anything other than niche, there are strong expectations that at least four borrowers will launch euro denominated mortgage backed deals in benchmark size.