DUBAI - The government of Sharjah sold $1 billion in 30-year Formosa bonds on Tuesday at 4%, a document showed.

Gulf states are seeking to bolster their finances amid the economic impact of the coronavirus and the crash in oil prices, and the third largest of the United Arab Emirates sold $1 billion of sukuk, or Islamic bonds, last month.

The Formosa bond - a category of debt sold in Taiwan by foreign borrowers and denominated in currencies other than the Taiwanese dollar - is Sharjah's first non-Islamic benchmark bond.

It is also its longest-dated, with its previous longest tenor being 10 years.

The emirate received around $3.7 billion in orders for the bond and tightened the yield after it began marketing at around 4.375% earlier on Tuesday.

"Asia is flush with liquidity," a banking source said, adding that Formosa bonds were a good way for Sharjah to diversify its sources of financing away from mostly regional sukuk investors.

The emirate hired Citi, Emirates NBD Capital, HSBC, Invest Bank, JPMorgan and Standard Chartered to arrange the issue, which will be listed on Euronext Dublin, Nasdaq Dubai and Taipei Exchange.

(Reporting by Yousef Saba and Davide Barbuscia; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and John Stonestreet) ((Yousef.Saba@thomsonreuters.com; +971562166204))