PHOTO
First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), the UAE’s largest bank by assets, has raised $700 million from its five-year benchmark sukuk, priced at par with a semi-annual coupon of 4.859%.
The senior unsecured Regulation S issuance saw it’s reoffer yield set at 4.859%, with the spread to benchmark at 85bps over US Treasuries, with a benchmark yield of 4.009%.
Initial price thoughts of FAB’s Wakala /Murabaha structure were in the +115bps area.
The orderbook peaked over $1.5 billion at launch, excluding JLM orders, with banks and private banks investing the lion’s share of 62%, followed by fund managers at 28%. Half of the investors (50%) were from MENA, with UK / Europe comprising 23%, and the US at 1%.
The sukuk will be issued under FAB’s $5 billion Trust Certificate Issuance Programme, and its rating is in line with the obligor’s, Aa3 / AA- by Moody’s / Fitch.
A listing on the London Stock Exchange’s Main Market will follow.
With the ongoing US-Iran war grinding DCM activities in MENA to a near-halt, the FAB sukuk marks the second such debt issuance by a major UAE bank in less than two weeks, with Emirates NBD raising $750 million earlier through a perpetual non call six-year AT1 bond.
For FAB, this marks the fourth debt issuance of 2026, and its first Islamic bond of the year, with its previous outings including a GBP issuance in February of £450 million ($613 million), preceded by two $750 million raises in January that included a Formosa bond.
The bank’s last sukuk issuance was in January 2025, which saw FAB raise $600 million with a five-year issuance that was priced at 5.153% at UST+70bps.
(Writing by Bindu Rai, editing by Seban Scaria)
