Emirates NBD Capital, the investment banking arm of Emirates NBD, has recorded a strong 2021 in debt capital markets. 

The investment bank's DCM team led 76 total issuances (public and private placements) panning 15 countries and raised in excess of $50 billion for its sovereign, financial institutions and corporate clients, Hitesh Asarpota, MD and head of Loan Syndications and Global Capital Markets, Emirates NBD Capital told Zawya.  

"Last year, Debt capital markets saw record volumes with issuers seeking to take advantage of conducive market conditions and enormous liquidity to raise funding across the capital spectrum. Global emerging market USD bond issuances were at $630 billion out of which financial Institutions accounted for nearly 31 percent of the volume followed by Sovereign/Government issuers,” Asarpota said.

“In terms of sovereigns we led a $2.5 billion Sukuk for Turkish government, GBP 500 million sukuk for the UK government, $1.25 billion bond for Sharjah Govt and a dollar bond for the government of Pakistan," he said.   

Emirates NBD Capital led significant transactions including $4 billon debut bond for the UAE Federation, $2.5billion bond for the Republic of Pakistan, and Euro 300 million for Eurasian Development Bank.

Some of the landmark sukuk issuances included a GBP500 million sukuk for Her Majesty’s Treasury – UK Government, $6bn Sukuk for Saudi Aramco, $2.5 billion Sukuk for Republic of Turkey & Sukuk for the Republic of Maldives.  

Last year, the investment bank continued to widen its geographical coverage of issuers and position itself as a leading Emerging Markets debt house.

“Our key value addition for issuers outside the GCC region is where we go through the entire process of diversifying their investor base and access to local investors as well as investor in Asia and Europe,” Asarpota said.

“Our unique proposition when we speak to non-regional issuers is our ability to diversify from a predominantly European or US investor base to Middle Eastern & Asian investors," he added.

Overall, 2021 had been a busy year for ENBD Capital in terms of loan syndication as well. The team closed 40 syndicated loans for a total volume of $45 billion across 11 countries. 

“We closed some large landmark transactions, including a $3 billion syndicated loan for the Egypt sovereign. That was in two tranches. They did an Islamic tranche in 2020, which was refinanced, and in 2021 they had a green tranche in the loan format, which they haven’t done before,” he said.

Emirates NBD Capital also expanded its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practice raising $5.5 billion across 12 issuances in 2021 including a landmark Additional Tier 1 Sustainable Bond for Axis Bank, Senior Unsecured Social Bond for Sovcombank & Tier 2 Sustainable sukuk for Kuveyt Turk.

“ESG is just picking up in this region. We have seen strong traction in the last two years. But we are obviously behind where Europe used to be. But the advantage there is lots of lessons are learnt with regards to what is happening in other parts of the world, how stringent you are, what sectors can issue and what formats,” Asarpota said.  

(Reporting by Seban Scaria; editing by Daniel Luiz)

(seban.scaria@lseg.com)

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