DUBAI - First Abu Dhabi Bank, the United Arab Emirates' largest lender, last month sold $500 million in privately placed 30-year Formosa bonds which had a 0% coupon.

Rula AlQadi, head of group funding at First Abu Dhabi Bank, confirmed the deal, which was earlier reported by Reuters, and said the Formosa bonds, which are sold in Taiwan by foreign borrowers and denominated in currencies other than the Taiwanese dollar, are non-callable for five years.

"FAB has been a frequent issuer in Taiwan and therefore is in a unique position to access Formosa liquidity with minimal lead time. This is also FAB's second Formosa deal in 2020 having issued $485 million 30-year in January," she said.

Standard Chartered was the sole arranger of the transaction and the bonds had a yield of 3.7% at issuance, a source earlier told Reuters.

Standard Chartered declined to comment.

(Reporting by Yousef Saba and Davide Barbuscia; Editing by Alex Richardson and Alexander Smith) ((Yousef.Saba@thomsonreuters.com; +971562166204))