Abu Dhabi lender First Gulf Bank has mandated banks to arrange investor meetings starting Nov. 3 and a bond sale could follow as the regional issue pipeline shows little sign of slowing down.
FGB hired HSBC, Citi, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and National Bank of Abu Dhabi to arrange the meetings, according to a statement sent by the banks to investors and seen by Reuters.
The investor meetings will cover Asia, Europe and the Middle East, and kick off in Hong Kong on Wednesday.
Abu Dhabi’s ruling family owns 66.7 percent of FGB, which reported a 9-percent fall in third quarter profit last week on lower revenues from subsidiaries, but beat analyst forecasts.
FGB last came to the market a year ago with a $500 million three year bond carrying a coupon of 4 percent. The bond was sold under the bank’s $3.5 billion euro medium-term note (EMTN) programme.
Shares in FGB were trading 1.5 percent lower at 0851 GMT.
A flurry of new bond mandates from the Gulf Arab region have been announced in recent weeks and many of the recent issues that have come to the market have been substantially oversubscribed, pointing to significant pent up demand.
Qatar National Bank, the Gulf state’s largest lender, Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC), Dubai’s Gulf General Investment Co and Oman’s MB Petroleum Services are all on the road this week.
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