Middle East

“Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before.” Mae West’s quote was invoked by Fritz Engelhard, director of European fixed income strategy at Barclays Capital, at the 11th Central European Covered Bond Conference in Istanbul yesterday (Thursday) to highlight the dilemma some issuers felt they were confronted by when choosing between structured and legislative covered bonds.

Delegates at the 11th Central European Covered Bond Conference, organised by the Banks Association of Turkey and the Association of German Pfandbrief Banks in Istanbul, yesterday (Thursday) debated the true cost of public supervision of covered bond issuance and, crucially, where deals from emerging markets should trade versus government bonds.

Turkey’s Capital Markets Board published the Bylaw on Principles Regarding İTMK (Turkish covered bonds) on 5 October, marking another regulatory step on the journey towards the first covered bond from the country.

Taqa, the Abu Dhabi National Energy Co, made a dazzling entry into the international capital markets this week, pricing the largest ever straight bond issue from the Middle East — a three-tranche blowout totalling the equivalent of $3.5bn that pulled $10bn of demand.

IPIC is talking to banks about a $640m eight year syndicated loan. It approached around 15 lenders early in August for first round commitments, and is likely to put together a club of eight banks within the next two weeks.