Tuesday 25 December 2012

Times of Oman | Gulf region may not repeat record debt sales: NBAD

National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), which surpassed Deutsche Bank as the Arabian Gulf's third-biggest debt underwriter for 2012, said it will be hard for the region to repeat this year's record sales as state refinancing slows.

About $40 billion of bonds will probably be sold in 2013 across the six-country Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), said Fawaz Abu Sneineh, head of debt capital markets for the bank known as NBAD. Issues jumped 54 per cent this year to $42 billion, an all- time high, as Qatar sold its first Islamic bonds and government-owned Dubai companies refinanced debt.

About half of the sales were sukuk, bonds that comply with Islam's ban on interest. "This year was a record for us, and we would like to maintain it," Abu Sneineh said in a December 17 interview. "Next year, the level of refinancing will be less and the markets would be expected to correct at some point."

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