QIB issue bond

QIB ‘plans $500mn bond issue’
Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB), Qatar’s second-largest lender by value, is preparing to tap the global debt markets with a bond issue worth at least $500mn, according to sources.
“They’ve mandated three banks and are pretty much ready to go,” one person with knowledge of the Islamic bank’s plans told the Zawya Dow Jones news agency yesterday.
Credit Suisse Group, HSBC Holding and QInvest, the Doha-based investment bank, are advising on the deal, sources said.
QIB didn’t respond to questions about the bonds.
The bank, which posted a 24% drop in fourth-quarter 2009 net profit last month, is looking to raise money to improve its debt to equity ratio as the company eyes growth and exposure to international investors. Shares in QIB closed down 1.58% yesterday at QR74.80 in a negative market.
There is growing investor appetite for exposure to Qatar, whose economy is expected to grow 16% in 2010 on the back of ballooning revenues from liquefied natural gas exports. Qatar is the world’s largest exporter of LNG by far.
In November Qatar sold $7bn of bonds on the global capital markets, the largest-ever sovereign debt issue in the Middle East.
Commercialbank of Qatar in the same month completed the largest-ever bond issue in the region by a non-government related entity in a two-part $1.6bn sale.
People familiar with QIB’s plans said any issue would most likely be open to investors in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, but not the US.
Another person familiar with the lender’s plans said the bank had been planning to tap the debt markets since the end of last year.
“They’ve looked at the debt markets on and off over the past few years. This has been in progress since the end of last year,” said the person who declined to be identified. Zawya Dow Jones