DUBAI- Qatar National Bank, the Gulf's biggest lender, sold on Tuesday $1 billion in five-year bonds, two sources said, the first non-sovereign public issuance in the international debt markets from the Gulf since February.
The bank is offering investors an interest rate equivalent to 225 basis points (bps) over mid-swaps, 35 bps tighter than where it began marketing the notes earlier on Tuesday. It received more than $3.75 billion in orders for the debt sale.
QNB hired Barclays, Credit Agricole, ING, Mizuho, QNB Capital and Standard Chartered to arrange the deal.
The sale follows a combined $24 billion in bonds raised by Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia last month, which bankers said would pave the way for regional banks to return to the public debt markets.
Volatility due to the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the effect of historically low oil prices on the hydrocarbon-dependent Gulf, kept issuers from tapping the markets and led some to scrap bond plans.
(Reporting by Yousef Saba and Davide Barbuscia; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Emelia Sithole-Matarise) ((Davide.Barbuscia@thomsonreuters.com; +971522604297; Reuters Messaging: davide.barbuscia.reuters.com@reuters.net))
