Saudi Arabia's Riyad Bank sells $1.5bln 10-year Islamic bonds

19/02/2020

Saudi Arabia's Riyad Bank has sold $1.5 billion in 10-year dollar sukuk, callable after five years, at 180 basis points (bps) over five-year mid-swaps, a document showed on Tuesday. The bank garnered more than $7.8 billion in orders for the sukuk, or Islamic bonds, the document said. It tightened the spreads after it had initially started marketing the bonds at around 225 bps over mid-swaps earlier on Tuesday.

Riyad Bank hired JPMorgan, Riyad Capital and Standard Chartered to lead the deal. First Abu Dhabi Bank and HSBC are also involved in arranging the debt sale.

The Tier 2 subordinated sukuk sale is part of a $3 billion issuance programme. It follows a series of debt issues by banks in the Gulf, despite fund managers foreseeing the coronavirus outbreak potentially hindering regional debt sales that were already expected to be slower this year. Dubai's largest bank Emirates NBD began marketing kangaroo bonds - Australian dollar-denominated bonds launched by non-Australian issuers - on Tuesday, while Saudi Arabia's Islamic Development Bank began marketing dollar sukuk. Last week, Kuwait's Boubyan Bank sold $750 million in five-year sukuk and Emirates NBD raised $500 million in bonds.

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