Reuters/Dubai
Commercialbank, Qatar’s third-biggest by market value, will gauge US investor’s appetite for a potential bond issue at a roadshow today.
“We are going on a roadshow, starting tomorrow in the US followed by Asia, Dubai and Abu Dhabi on Sunday,” finance director Nicholas Coleman said yesterday from Doha.
Gulf issuance of conventional as well as Islamic bonds this year has remained well below 2008 levels, but a growing appetite for emerging market debt has encouraged more bond issuance this quarter.
Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse are organising the roadshow, according to Thomson IFR.
Coleman declined to comment on how much the bank is looking to issue or why it was going to the markets. He indicated any bond is more likely to be a conventional one rather than an Islamic bond, or sukuk.
Investors have shown strong appetite for recent Qatar government entity bond sales. In July, a joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil sold about $2.3bn in bonds to finance the expansion of LNG facilities. A month earlier, Qtel’s $1.5bn bond was heavily oversubscribed.
Qatar’s economy is expected to grow in real terms by 7 to 9% in 2009.
Commercialbank last came to the market in 2006 with a $500mn bond as part of a $1.5bn euro medium term note programme.