Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

NCB launched a US$700 million 5-year Bond | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Jeddah, Asharq Al-Awsat- The National Commercial Bank launched a US$700 million 5-year Bond after an extensive road-show in Asia and Europe by a senior NCB team. This was the first drawdown off of the Bank’s recently established US$1.5 billion Euro medium Term Note (EMTN) programme.

This is the largest issuance by a Saudi bank into the International Capital Markets. The demand from the International investors was very high evidenced by an order book of US$1.5 billion at the initial price guidance. The majority of the bonds were distributed outside the Middle East region with 80% going to Europe and Asia.

NCB is Saudi Arabia’s and the GCC’s largest bank in terms of assets and capital. NCB and the Bonds are rated A/A- by Fitch and Standard & Poor’s respectively. Both Deutsche Bank and UBS Investment Bank acted as joint book-runners and lead managers on the transaction, while Deutsche Bank was the sole Arranger of the programme.

NCB’s Chairman & Managing Director Sheikh Abdulla Bahamdan commented: “The strong response of the international capital markets to NCB issue is a reflection of the bank’s strong franchise and sustained financial excellence, fuelled by our 1 million-strong customer base, our high-caliber employees, and the robust economic fundamentals of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”.

NCB’s Chief Financial Officer, Donald Hill, added: “We are delighted with the success of this transaction as it has allowed us to diversify our sources of funding, address the need to lengthen the maturity profile of our liabilities and strengthen our international profile.”