First Abu Dhabi Bank hired leading financial advisors such as Barclays, HSBC and Nomura to lead the bond issuance. The bonds issuance is under First Abu Dhabi Bank’s $15 billion euro medium-term note programme. 

In fact, the deal has reported to have lured nearly GBP 1.25 billion of orders in London by midday. Last month, First Abu Dhabi Bank also issued Islamic bonds or sukuks worth $500 million. 

In the Middle East, Boubyan Bank had issued $750 million in five-year sukuk, while Riyad Bank plans to issue a dollar-denominated sukuk. Emirates NBD also issued bonds worth $500 million this month.

Syed Yahya Sultan, head of fixed income strategy at Emirates NBD, said that, Emirates NBD and Boubyan have priced record-low yields on their five-year bonds and these are levels lower than US Treasuries at the same time last year.” 

Last month, Abu Dhabi Bank  sold sukuks worth $500 million, with a profit rate equal to 90 basis points, media reports said. Earlier this month, Abu Dhabi was in talks with banks to take a proactive approach to debt financing. 

Currently, Abu Dhabi has one of the best credit ratings in the region. It is rated AA by S&P and Fitch and Aa2 by Moody’s. It appears that the Abu Dhabi Department of Finance frequently assesses options under the existing bond issuance programme. 

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The allocations in rest of the countries in the region such as Qatar, Turkey and Kuwait will remain the same as earlier, according to a Reuters poll.

Egypt is becoming a popular choice of investment of the Mena fund managers region due to falling inflation and interest rates. The central bank of Egypt cut the interest rates by 150 basis points, while the inflation rate reported in the country was the lowest in four years.

Vrajesh Bhandari, the senior portfolio manager at Al Mal capital told Reuters, “This should drive demand for consumer goods as well as support corporate capital expenditure financed by lower borrowing costs.” He added that Egypt’s growth rate is the highest in the Middle Eastern region.

Egypt’s main index increased by 9.56 percent in 2019, which no other market in the region achieved.

According to a poll conducted recently, half of the participating Mena fund managers said that they would increase investments in UAE.

The markets in UAE, especially Dubai did not perform well in 2018. But Dubai rebounded in 2019 with the main index rising by almost 8.67 percent. The main index in Abu Dhabi has also increased by 4.39 percent in 2019.

According to reports sixty percent of the fund managers stated they would reduce their investments in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia’s main index fell by 6.6 percent in the quarter of 2019.

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