#Kuwait's Burgan Bank gets approval for up to $500 million senior bonds | Reuters

Kuwait's Burgan Bank gets approval for up to $500 million senior bonds | Reuters

Kuwait's Burgan Bank (BURG.KW) has received preliminary approval from the central bank to issue up to $500 million in senior unsecured bonds, the lender said in a stock exchange filing.

The bonds will be issued under Burgan's Euro Medium Term Note Program. They will either have a tenor of five years with a fixed coupon rate or a six-year tenor with an option to redeem the bonds after five years. The six-year option would have a fixed coupon rate for five years then a floating rate for its final year, should the bank not "call" the bonds.

Closing the bond sale will allow Burgan "to reinforce its long-term liquidity and regulatory liquidity ratios," it said in the filing.

Sales of senior bonds are relatively rare from the Gulf's banks, but Burgan's debt-raising plans follow the country's biggest lender, National Bank of Kuwait, securing $1 billion last week via six-year senior bonds non-callable for five years.