Etisalat yesterday priced a reopening of its existing 2019 bond, raising an additional $400mn, a document from lead arrangers said. Known as tap, the bond was priced at 72.5 basis points over midswaps and came at a re-offer price of 101.106, the document showed. The deal has the same terms as the June 2019 bond which the operator sold last year as part of a $4.3bn multi-tranche debut issue. HSBC and National Bank of Abu Dhabi were bookrunners on the bond tap.
Bloomberg/Dubai
Emirates Telecommunications Corp plans to return to the bond market after raising $4.3bn from its debut sale in June as the Abu Dhabi-based company seeks to benefit from near record-low yields.
The UAE phone operator is seeking to sell debt under its $7bn global medium-term note programme, it said in a statement to the stock market. The sale is subject to market conditions.
The securities will be part of the 2.375% June 2019 notes that raised $500mn last year, according to two people with knowledge of the deal.
Bond sales in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council have dropped 6.9% to $9.24bn this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The average yield on bonds sold by issuers in the Middle East was at 4.61% on Monday, just off a record low of 4.57% in August, according to JP Morgan Chase indexes.
Etisalat’s June issue, when it sought cash to acquire a 53% stake in Maroc Telecom, included securities in dollars and euros and was of four different maturities. The bond was yielding 2.061% at 11.58am in Dubai, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That corresponds to a spread of 71.5 basis points, or 0.715 percentage points, above the midswap rate, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. HSBC Holdings and National Bank of Abu Dhabi are managing the sale, according to the people.
