The Government of Sharjah has mandated banks to market its upcoming 500 million euros ($521 million) no grow, fixed rate Regulation S Senior unsecured bond offering with an expected tenor of 7 years.

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Bank of Sharjah, Crédit Agricole CIB, Emirates NBD Capital, HSBC, IMI-Intesa Sanpaolo and J.P. Morgan will act as joint lead managers and joint bookrunners.

The bond will be issued under the Issuer’s Global Medium Term Note Programme, and will be listed on the London Stock exchange and Nasdaq Dubai.

This will be the second €500 bond issuance by the emirate after the sustainable €500 bond offering in July 2024. In an investor document, the Sharjah government indicated that the second offering, the proceeds of which will be used for budgetary purposes, would help establish a EUR yield curve. By limiting the size to €500 million, which is approximately 2.3% of Sharjah’s total outstanding debt, the refinancing risk was minimal.    

The emirate, the third largest in the UAE, has $23.7 billion in total gross debt outstanding as of end-December 2024.

The debut offering was priced at 190 basis points (bps) over mid-swaps, down from initial price guidance in 220 bps area. The issuance drew orders of over €2.2 billion  

 (Writing by Brinda Darasha; editing by Seban Scaria)  

brinda.darasha@lseg.com