DUBAI: Emirates Development Bank (EDB), a development bank fully owned by the UAE government, has successfully closed a $750 million senior bond.
Rated AA- by Fitch, the EDB said the debut bond issue, which has a five-year tenure, was launched at 3.516 per cent coupon in the Regulation S markets.
The inaugural US dollar transaction was issued under EDB’s newly established $3-billion Euro Medium Term Note (EMTN) programme, to provide the bank accessibility to capital markets and further strengthen its funding profile.
EDB is the first federal entity to access the international capital markets under the UAE’s recently announced federal debt framework.
The success of the transaction came on the back of an extensive marketing strategy aimed at introducing EDB to international and regional investors, said a statement from the Emirati bank.
The management team, met with institutional investors in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Taipei, it stated.
They showed a strong appetite for EDB’s credit offering, resulting in the order book reaching $3.5 billion (close to 4.7 times oversubscription), with demand from over 130 investors.
The investor base was diverse with 36 per cent representing the Middle East, 22 per cent from European markets, and 42 per cent representing Asian markets.
