UAE’s ENBD sets price guidance for Yuan bond

UAE’s ENBD sets price guidance for Yuan bond

Price guidance for a 3-year benchmark yuan bond from Dubai lender Emirates NBD is in the 5 percent area with final pricing expected later on Monday, leads said.

March 5, 2012 1:20 by Reuters

HSBC and Standard Chartered are bookrunners on the deal, whose book is already in excess of 1.5 billion yuan ($238.16 million).

ENBD is planning to raise as much as 750 million yuan ($119.08 million) from the bond sale, according to leads.

The potential issue from ENBD — Dubai’s largest bank by market value and majority government-owned — is the Gulf Arab region’s first yuan bond, reflecting the growing importance of bilateral ties with China and giving a further boost for yuan-denominated issuance in international markets.

Benchmark bonds are typically at least 500 million in size.

ENBD had picked HSBC, Standard Chartered, and its own unit, ENBD Capital, to run the roadshows, which took place from Feb. 22 and were held in Hong Kong and Singapore.

The bank would be following in the footsteps of McDonalds , Volkswagen and UK retailer Tesco, which have all issued offshore bonds issued in yuan in the last year.

There has been a consistent growth in bilateral economic and financial cooperation between China and the United Arab Emirates.

In January, China signed a bilateral currency swap agreement with the UAE worth 35 billion yuan ($5.5 billion), China’s first currency swap deal in the Middle East, in a move to boost two-way trade and investment. ($1 = 6.2982 Chinese yuan) (Reporting by Rachna Uppal and Martina Fuchs; Editing by Dinesh Nair)