International law firms Clifford Chance and Allen & Overy are advising the National Bank of Abu Dhabi on a $750 million, five-year dollar bond, sources familiar with the matter told The Brief.
The Abu Dhabi government owns 70.5 percent of NBAD, the largest bank by market value in the United Arab Emirates. The bookrunners on the latest deal include Barclays, HSBC, and UBS other than NBAD itself.
It has been a busy first quarter for both Clifford Chance and Allen & Overy, considering that both had teamed up with Dubai lender Emirates NBD in February to advise on the Gulf region’s first Chinese yuan bond. The three-year, 750 million yuan bond was launched at 4.875 percent earlier this month.
NBAD’s bond, which came under the bank's $5 billion programme, priced at 190 basis points over midswaps, according to Reuters. Initial guidance was for 190 to 200 basis points over midswaps. The bank had held investor meetings for the bond issuance in Switzerland and the United Kingdom in February.
It would be a return to the debt markets for the bank, which last issued $20 million in a private placement in September 2011. It had also previously issued a 10 billion yen ($131.4 million) bond in July, which was the first time a Middle Eastern bank had issued a Samurai deal.
Both Clifford Chance and Allen & Overy had advised NBAD on the Samurai bond also last year. ALB
Shaheen Pasha is Middle East Regional Editor at ALB. Follow her on Twitter: @ALB_TheBrief.
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