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| Regional results |
| Press release |
Best Investment Bank
Best Investment Bank
Best Investment Bank
Best Investment Bank
Best Investment Bank
Best Investment Bank
Best Investment Bank
Best Investment Bank
Best Investment Bank
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Bahrain
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Bahrain’s banking sector may not be as vibrant as it used to be, or as competitive as Dubai’s, but Ahli United Bank should still be commended for its impressive dominance of that market.
The bank improved its net profit by 8.4% over the year, to $619 million, while increasing its return on average equity from 15.6% a year ago to 16.5% today and reducing non-performing loans as a percentage of gross loans from 2.3% to 1.9%.
Beyond these strong figures, Ahli United also made efforts to expand its offering. Al Hilal Life and Al Hilal Takaful, the insurance subsidiaries of the bank, continue to improve their services by launching new products and targeting new business segments. In 2017, they strengthened their focus on medical insurance and corporate segments by undertaking joint marketing with the bank’s corporate banking segment, which translated into more than 50% growth in gross premiums over the year.
The company is in the process of launching several new products, such as Islamic flexible life insurance, a high value individual medical plan and group medical products for SMEs in Bahrain and Kuwait.
Ratings downgrades and a weakening economy made for still tougher conditions for Bahraini issuers in the capital markets in 2017, despite efforts to consolidate the government’s finances.
In this challenging environment, Bahrain’s best investment bank, GIB Capital, remains a stalwart of the island’s investment banking sector, and not just thanks to support from its main shareholder, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia.
GIB Capital took its natural leading place among bookrunners on the landmark Bahraini deal last year – a $3 billion Islamic and conventional triple deal in September, which included an ambitious 30-year tranche. The issuance reopened the public Middle Eastern bond markets after the summer, after the scare of the Qatari embargo in June. It also followed a decision by Moody’s to downgrade Bahrain in July.
It did not end there. In October, GIB Capital was bookrunner on a $1 billion 10-year debut deal from Nogaholding, also known as Bahrain’s Oil and Gas Holding Company. Earlier in the year, GIB Capital was financial adviser to the Bahrain National Gas Expansion Company, a Nogaholding subsidiary, on a $565 million project financing, including a $515 million syndicated conventional and Islamic term facility.
Across the causeway, GIB Capital advised the Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation on the privatization of several airports. It was also bookrunner on the debut sukuk from Saudi Aramco, via a private placement.
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Egypt
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Egypt is perceived as an exceptionally volatile market, not just because of its recent revolutionary history but also because of the inflationary and monetary policy impact of the late-2016 devaluation of the pound. Nevertheless, in 2017, the country’s private-sector banks continued to demonstrate exceptionally high profitability, mostly around 30% return on equity or more.
For international stock investors, Commercial International Bank, Egypt’s best bank, still manages to present the best opportunity for those looking to gain exposure to the Egyptian banking sector and the wider economy, as its relative valuation shows. Its stock is valued higher than local peers, at more than three times book value. It posted a return on average equity of 32.5% in 2017. It has one of the sector’s best cost-to-income ratios, at just over 20%, in a country where a ratio of 30% looks inefficient.
Under the long-standing leadership of Hisham Ezz Al Arab, CIB continued to develop its business model during 2017, ensuring it remains the champion of the Egyptian private sector in terms of its net income and market share. The development of its data analytics capacity is a good example of this. CIB has recently used data to lend in the absence of formal credit history, to better segment customers according to their spending behaviour and to identify fraud.
The bank succeeded in bolstering its capital base in 2017 thanks to subordinated loans totalling $200 million from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and from the World Bank’s private-sector arm, the IFC. The funding is designed to help CIB hedge against volatility in the local currency over the next decade and to support its growth.
On the investment banking side, competition among Egyptian investment banks is heating up, particularly after the 2015 acquisition of Beltone Financial by local billionaire and former Orascom Telecom magnate, Naguib Sawiris. Pharos Investment Bank, sold to a consortium led by late chairman and founder Mohamed Taymour in 2015 by local private-equity player Qalaa Holdings, also had an impressive year. Elwy Taymour, previously of the New York frontier broker Auerbach Grayson, is overseeing Pharos’ expansion, including a bolstered presence in Dubai.
Strong competitors like these will keep EFG Hermes, Egypt’s best investment bank, on its toes; although in 2017 its roster of deals was still unsurpassed. These deals included a $50 million secondary stake sale in snack foods firm Edita by private equity firm Actis. It acted as sole global coordinator in the $45 million IPO of outsourcing firm Raya Contact Centre and it helped Global Telecom Holding sell $36 million of shares in an accelerated bookbuild. In the fourth quarter, it completed the $40 million rights issue of Cleopatra Hospitals Group and the $42 million IPO of DICE, a local garment manufacturer.
EFG Hermes, led by chief executive Karim Awad, was financial adviser in the sale of food and beverage producer Native Markets to local conglomerate Intro Investments Holding and sole financial adviser to the Al Futtaim group in its $60 million debt refinancing for Cairo Festival City. It also advised real estate developer Amer Group on setting up its London Stock Exchange depository receipts programme.
Outside Egypt, EFG Hermes was sole global coordinator on the $280 million IPO of regional energy firm ADES International Holding on the London Stock Exchange.
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Iran
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Iran has not had the year the country’s bankers had hoped for. Building business relations with banks and corporates abroad proved difficult, as international financial institutions remained wary of lingering sanctions against the Islamic Republic and US president Donald Trump’s repeated expression of his intention to leave the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA).
Iran also experienced weeks of popular unrest, as thousands, many of them disgruntled bank customers, took to the streets of various cities. These were partly demonstrations against the country’s political leadership and disappointing economic growth and partly expressions of concern about financial institutions struggling to cater to their clients’ needs and protect their deposits.
No bank emerged unscathed from these problems. However, Ayandeh Bank did best in these difficult conditions, overtaking Bank Pasargad, Euromoney’s best bank in Iran for several years in a row.
Ayandeh won the award for best bank transformation in the Middle East last year for its successful evolution from a myriad of smaller institutions into a single important player in Iranian banking.
The bank’s impressive performance this past year, despite the many challenges, confirmed it as a now dominant force in the country. Its net income rose 34% to IR81 trillion ($1.9 billion). Total loans grew by 60%, to IR790 trillion, and the loan-to-deposit ratio went from 70% to 82.5%, as the bank tried to support the real economy.
Not everything was positive – profits before tax fell slightly, as did return on equity – but overall the bank managed to weather the storm and develop as an institution.
Interestingly for a banking sector that is still wedded to old technology, Ayandeh launched Finnotech, a platform that allows the bank to provide customized services for financial startups, e-commerce companies and banking software producers.
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Israel
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It was another year of good progress for Bank Leumi, which wins the title of Israel’s best bank for the third year running. Bank Hapoalim had been the dominant force for many years locally, but yet again Leumi is the one to beat.
On the evidence of the last 12 months, Leumi will be hard to dislodge from the top. Back in 2014, when Hapoalim last won this award, Leumi’s return on equity stood at 5.4%, and Hapoalim’s at 9.6%. Now Leumi has return on equity of 9.8%, while Hapoalim’s has fallen to 7.5%.
Leumi is also investing in its future, recently collaborating with tech companies Temenos and VMware to launch a digital banking platform that offers an end-to-end mobile retail solution, from hosting to back and front office. It builds on Leumi’s existing digital bank, Pepper, by combining it with Temenos’s core banking platform and VMware’s cloud infrastructure.
Rivals may soon emerge in Israel, however, as the country introduces new regulations to cut costs and ease procedures for new banks. This could create more competition for incumbents Leumi and Hapoalim.
In investment banking, Rothschild unseats perennial winner Barclays as the country’s best this year.
Rothschild was the most active adviser in Israel, working on nine deals, with a 38.7% market share. The roles included advising on Intel’s $15.3 billion acquisition of Mobileye, Intas Pharmaceutics’ £603 million acquisition of Actavis UK and IE and CVC’s $703 million acquisition of Teva Pharmaceutical’s international women’s health portfolio.
The acquisition of Mobileye was particularly important, being the largest-ever Israeli technology deal. It was completed in the third quarter of 2017, four months ahead of schedule. Rothschild was closely involved, advising Intel on all aspects of the transaction, including a strategic review of the autonomous driving industry and its competitive dynamics, an extensive due diligence of Mobileye’s business and financial projections and a valuation analysis of the business.
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Jordan
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There was a time when Housing Bank for Trade and Finance looked set to mount a credible challenge against Jordan’s longstanding champion, Arab Bank. But this last year was one when Arab Bank managed to outpace its smaller rival and prove that it was not only still far larger but also more innovative than its principal competition.
Overcoming Jordan’s continuing economic troubles, in part a result of the influx of refugees from neighbouring Syria, Arab Bank’s net profit after tax remained steady year on year, at $533 million. Meanwhile, loans and advances grew by 6%, to reach $25 billion, and customer deposits reached $34 billion.
Importantly, a court ruling in the US that had held the bank liable for Hamas terrorism has now been overturned, which lifts a heavy moral and financial weight from its shoulders.
The bank should also be commended for having succeeded in closing the financing of the 50 megawatt Risha photovoltaic solar power project, which was offered by the Jordanian ministry of energy and mineral resources under a direct contact approach. The Risha financing arrangements were structured in cooperation with the EBRD, among others.
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Kuwait
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Like other smaller oil-rich states, Kuwait has the luxury of great public wealth proportional to its population. This helps prop up its economy in an era of lower oil prices. Slower regional growth has nevertheless heavily affected Kuwait and accentuated underlying challenges, for example in the local real estate market.
In the banking sector in recent years, national champions elsewhere in the region have followed the example of National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) in terms of exploiting the opportunities for regional expansion. Closer to home, rival lenders that faced greater difficulty than NBK in the 2008 financial crisis have continued to rebound thanks to de-risking and improving their asset quality.
Nevertheless, under chief executive Isam Al Sager, NBK remains Kuwait’s best bank in 2018 – not just the biggest but also the most profitable. Its return on equity in 2017 was around 13%, higher than any other Kuwait bank, according to Arqaam Capital. The Kuwaiti lender that came closest to beating NBK’s ROE last year, Boubyan, is much smaller and is also majority owned by NBK as an Islamic-banking play.
On the digital front, NBK has continued to invest, recently launching tap-and-pay mobile transactions and wristbands. It retains a strong wealth management franchise that has had a consistent position at the top of the Kuwaiti ranking in Euromoney’s 2018 private banking and wealth management survey – one that extends across the region.
In corporate banking, NBK made new strides in project finance and in the digitization of transaction banking. It has also shown its strength in investment banking. NBK Capital was involved in a high proportion of the most important Kuwaiti deals of the year in both debt and equity, including NBK issuance of its own debut 144a/RegS bond.
As in other markets in the Middle East, new international debt issuance in Kuwait also came alongside hopes of an improvement in equity capital markets. The debut sovereign bond came in March. Kuwait was reclassified as an emerging rather than frontier market by index provider FTSE Russell in September – possibly preceding a move by MSCI, which recent local stock exchange reforms may help achieve.
This is another country, however, where the unequalled global breadth of Citi, Kuwait’s best investment bank, is in strong evidence. Citi was global coordinator on the sovereign debut, on the NBK bond and on what it claims is the first corporate sukuk from Kuwait for Equate Petrochemical Company. The firm was bookrunner on the biggest Kuwaiti equity deal of the year, the $120 million offering in local education company Human Soft, on behalf of the Al Imtiaz Group.
In M&A, Citi advised on the sale of Kuwaiti telecoms firm Zain to Omantel, working for Al Khair, in a series of deals that also included the sale of Zain’s tower portfolio to IHS.
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Lebanon
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Lebanon used to be one of the world’s hardest banking awards to judge, as its two biggest lenders were also similarly successful. While it remains very competitive, recently these two banks’ overall performance has grown slightly further apart.
In 2018, for the third year in a row, Blom Bank, under chairman and general manager Saad Azhari, is the country’s best bank. Shares in Blom rose 16% over 2017, compared with a 12% decline in rival Bank Audi’s share price; Blom’s return on equity was also better than Audi in 2017.
Overall, Audi’s bigger international business – particularly in Turkey – has not allowed it to beat Blom. Instead, Blom has done better with a bigger share of its domestic retail market. Today, Blom is more efficient, with a cost-to-income ratio of 34% versus 51% at Audi. It is also far stronger in terms of its capital adequacy (18.5% versus 16.9%) and its non-performing loan ratio is better too (3.13% versus 3.5%).
The judges might have overlooked these statistical advantages had they not also been accompanied by Blom’s qualitative strengths. Blom is not prioritizing short-term financial gain over longer-term investment. This was the year that Blom completed its acquisition of HSBC’s Lebanon branches. Other forward-looking aspects of Blom’s strategy include the launch of a service enabling customers to make contactless payments with Android smartphones, the first of its kind in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, Blom underlined its contribution to Lebanese public-sector development as it installed terminals allowing card payments for services such as passport renewals at 50 locations. It also signed a $50 million agreement with the World Bank’s IFC, meaning lower costs and longer tenors in trade finance transactions.
Blom’s investment banking arm, Blominvest Bank, increased its contribution to startup funds as part of the Lebanese central bank’s programme of support to the funds (Blom is also active in supporting the knowledge and tech sector through its CSR programme). While it retains its strong position in the local equity brokerage market, Blominvest is also active in the primary and advisory markets, advising on the $115 million sale of Saudi’s Kingdom Holding’s share in the Beirut Four Seasons, for example.
Investment banking is one area of the local financial sector where Lebanese banking talent and entrepreneurialism shine through, despite the difficulties of the business environment.
Previously working at a unit of Lebanon’s biggest bank, Ramon Jisr was general manager of Audi Investment Bank before he became managing partner at Broadgate Advisers, Lebanon’s best investment bank. Only three years later – partly thanks to maintaining strong relations with Bank Audi, including a Saudi partnership – Broadgate is already playing a central role in the M&A market in Lebanon and beyond, particularly in the mid-cap segment. It is also building up in the Lebanese venture capital sector and wealth management, where it has a Swiss business.
Broadgate’s biggest deal of the year was the carve-out of Audi’s payment processing and card solutions division onto Areeba, which was then sold to the local M1 Group, for $220 million.
Broadgate’s other deals included advice to Alanwa Holding Company, representing the interests of the Saudi Al Ibrahim family, on their minority exit from IBL Bank, in Lebanon, to private investors. It advised one of the big shareholders of ABC SAL on its sale of a 4.3% stake in the Lebanese mall operator. It also advised Riyadh-based Alliance Holding Company on sales of its Arabian inks business to US multinational Sun Chemical and on Alliance’s sale of Davex, its Malaysian lighting manufacturer, to a local private equity firm, Ekuiti Nasional.
In Lebanon, Broadgate advised the consortium buying Lebanon’s largest supermarket chain, Spinneys Levant Limited.
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Oman
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Last year, HSBC Oman impressed with its fast growth and innovative spirit, to claim the title of best Omani bank from the perennial winner. This year Bank Muscat reclaims the title it lost, thanks to the growth of its loan book and the improvement of its digital offering.
Although net profit was flat year on year, net loans and advances, including Islamic financing receivables, increased last year by 4.7% to OR8.3 billion ($21 million) and net interest income rose by 2.6% to OR281 million.
Just as importantly, the bank improved its offering on digital channels by launching a mobile wallet service to its clients. The remittance service was also enhanced by making it operate at close to real time to five countries, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.
The bank also launched tablet banking, providing customers with the convenience of home-visit banking to apply for accounts, personal loans, auto loans, credit cards and insurance products.
The biggest bank in Oman also dominates the local investment banking scene, notching up an impressive array of financing deals during the period.
As might be expected, Oman’s best investment bank, Bank Muscat, worked on the government’s landmark $5 billion 144a/RegS bond. But its list of deals was varied in terms of both size and sector, covering benchmark bonds and sukuk, as well as loans in the electricity sector and IPOs of local insurance and desalination companies.
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Palestinian Territories
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Palestine remains one of the most challenging Middle Eastern markets in which to operate. Only with a thorough understanding of its economy, of its disjointed geography and of its wide network of small and medium-sized enterprises can one hope to perform even the most basic banking functions.
Time and again, Bank of Palestine has shown not only that it possesses this ability but that it can also flourish.
Last year, Bank of Palestine’s 70 branches and 1,700 employees managed to increase the bank’s profit before tax by more than 7% to $73 million and its loan book by 14% to $2.51 billion. Customer deposits grew by an impressive 20%.
The bank continued to work to reach more of the Palestinian diaspora, which contributes so much to the Palestinian economy, by opening a second representative office in Santiago, Chile. That office will help Bank of Palestine better service its clients among the 500,000 Chileans of Palestinian origin.
The bank approved a capital raise at Arab Islamic Bank in 2017, the latest subsidiary addition to Bank of Palestine, to meet the potential for growth in Palestinian Islamic finance.
Micro and SMEs represent 90% of the Palestinian economy but are drastically underserved. The bank continued to assist these firms last year with the continuation of a programme it launched in 2015 to provide them with $200 million in credit. As a result of these efforts, credit to the smallest businesses has risen to 19% of the total loan book.
In corporate social responsibility, Bank of Palestine also strove to bring about positive change. it has pioneered a special programme called ‘Felestineya’ that focuses on economic and social empowerment for women both at the bank and in the broader market place, with a target of reaching 1,000 women. Thanks to the programme, more women have gained access to jobs within the bank, including at senior level. One in three employees is now a woman.
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Qatar
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The regional diplomatic and trade embargo last year seemed to only add to Qatar’s resolve to forge an independent path. The emirate’s immense wealth has enabled it to do so, for now, with relative ease.
After the inevitable outflow of bank deposits from other Gulf Arab countries, Qatar’s state savings gave it the ability to replace those deposits with public funds, bolstering the local system and in particular its flagship lender.
Shares in QNB, Qatar’s best bank, dipped more dramatically than other local banks after the imposition of the embargo. But so far, under chief executive Ali Ahmed Al Kuwari, QNB has continued to perform better than its peers.
QNB’s advantages as the national champion have so far stood it in good stead – not just through better access to state funds but also thanks to its international business. Fears it would be cut off from subsidiaries, such as QNB Alahly in Egypt, have not come to pass. The bank still owns a top-10 Turkish lender, QNB Finansbank, and a 20% stake in pan-African group Ecobank, among other international subsidiaries and interests.
In 2017, QNB further expanded its international network, starting operations in Mumbai, India. It was able to diversify its funding with the issuance of a $630 million 30-year formosa bond in September. A $3.5 billion three-year senior unsecured loan facility in February this year was further proof of international confidence in the bank after the release of its 2017 results.
The balance sheet, net income and market capitalization of QNB still dwarfs the other Qatari banks. But its profitability is also better, being the only listed Qatari bank to surpass 20% return on equity in 2017, according to Arqaam Capital research.
Gone is the time when Qatar would grab headlines for snapping up companies around the world, seemingly every month. These days the news seems just as likely to be about Qatari exits, either to raise cash or to reposition for a future when operations in some neighbouring countries have become more complicated.
Nevertheless, the country has remained active as a large investor in some countries and sectors, such as Turkey and in aerospace with Qatar Airways. Qatar has also developed a national investment banking champion, QInvest, Qatar’s best investment bank. Financially, QInvest continues to do well, serving clients in Qatar and the region.
QInvest was joint lead manager and bookrunner on sukuk at home for names including local developer Ezdan and Qatar Islamic Bank, as well as further afield, for Saudi developer Dar Al Arkan and a $40 million additional tier-1 deal for pan-Islamic banking group Al Baraka.
In M&A, QInvest advised a high-profile local client in a $220 million investment in Turkish retailer Boyner Perakende. It was also sole adviser to the acquirer of Lebanese construction firm Oger’s 20% stake in Jordan’s Arab Bank, for $1.12 billion. The buyer was a consortium of Jordanian and regional investors led by Arab Bank chairman Sabih al-Masri.
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Saudi Arabia
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Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 was released two years ago; since then the country has dominated both news headlines and business meetings across the Middle East. That was certainly the case last year, as analysts tried to gauge when the promised public listing of state oil company Saudi Aramco would happen. But news out of Saudi Arabia also included the elevation of Mohammed bin Salman to the rank of crown prince, his sudden and controversial anti-corruption campaign, the blockade against Qatar and the continued war in Yemen.
All of these events have made observers wonder if geopolitical risk and political inexperience at the top of government could mitigate the otherwise optimistic picture of a country opening up to foreign influences and investment.
National Commercial Bank, Saudi Arabia’s best bank, under chief executive Saeed Al-Ghamdi, outstripped the sector last year with a return on equity of 16% – making it a deserving winner of best bank in Saudi Arabia this year. The bank’s advantage over its competitors lies in large part in its positive jaws (rate income over expenses growth) ratio and the smart streamlining of its back office.
These improvements help explain NCB’s soaring share price, up by more than 50% over the last 12 months. Although challenges persist, the three-year high in oil prices, coupled with rising non-oil revenues, bolstered NCB’s earnings.
And, crucially, NCB has aligned itself convincingly with the priorities of the Saudi government, making it more likely than others to benefit from the reform programme laid out in Vision 2030.
The vision encourages home ownership; NCB already has a SR20 billion portfolio of home credit. The vision targets greater small and medium-sized enterprise contribution to the GDP; NCB supports over 70,000 SMEs. The vision seeks to reduce Saudi unemployment; 95% of NCB’s staff are Saudis.
The much-anticipated initial public offering of Saudi Aramco may not have taken place yet, but Saudi Arabia remains, in the minds of most bankers, the Eldorado of Middle Eastern, if not global, investment banking.
Few banks have positioned themselves as well as HSBC to benefit from the upcoming deal frenzy. Having long had a presence on the ground in Saudi Arabia, where many of its rivals are only now scrambling to obtain banking licences, HSBC has in place the knowledge and contacts in the Kingdom to be an essential partner in the delivery of its Vision objectives.
HSBC is the largest foreign broker in Saudi Arabia, with a market share in 2017 of 7% overall and 13% for institutional clients. It also has the broadest research coverage of Saudi equities among international banks, covering 48 stocks.
Building on this strong foundation, HSBC has become involved in various projects to deliver the Vision’s goals. To help Saudi Arabia realize its fiscal balancing programme, the bank acted as global coordinator and bookrunner on the sovereign bond issue. To help the country strengthen its private sector, the bank is advising Tadawul, among others, on various privatization deals. Finally, to promote foreign investment in the country, HSBC has enabled multiple qualified foreign investor (QFI) registrations, allowing foreign funds to buy into Saudi stocks. The bank has a 90% share of the QFI market.
Of the many deals HSBC advised on in 2017, one deserves a special mention for its novelty. The bank acted as sole bookrunner and placement agent on the sell-down by the food group Savola of a SR1.1 billion ($293 million) stake in dairy company Al-Marai. The deal, which was the first-ever accelerated bookbuild transaction in Saudi Arabia, demonstrated the country’s willingness to introduce previously forbidden capital market instruments and HSBC’s ability to be at the forefront of that change.
Saudi Arabia is only at the beginning of its reformation; many international banks look set to compete fiercely for the deal mandates that were once the preserve of HSBC. Still, at least for now, the UK bank is still a few steps ahead.
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UAE
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Emirati economic growth has slowed since the spectacular oil price drop of 2014, while conditions were further complicated last year by the blockade against Qatar. This caused a dramatic decrease in trade and financial flows between the two countries and accentuated the emirates’ real estate crisis, as Qataris sought to sell their Dubai properties.
Still, there were opportunities for the more discerning Emirati banks. Emirates NBD withstood the competition that came with the formation of First Abu Dhabi Bank to remain the most profitable bank in the country last year. That makes it a winner of best bank in the UAE.
With a local market share of 20% for deposits and 19% for loans, Emirates is still the bank to beat. Operating performance – net profit was up 15% to Dh8.4 billion ($2.29 billion) – was supported by higher income, lower expenses and an improved cost of risk. Thanks to these improvements, Emirates generated the highest return on equity, 17.9%, in the UAE.
The digital abilities of the bank, which will receive another Dh1 billion investment over the next three years, are another reason the bank stands out as the best in the UAE.
The UAE helped drive a tentative rise in Middle East investment banking revenues in 2017, mainly due to a healthy rebound in equity primary issuance. The end game for many investment bankers will be Saudi Aramco’s planned IPO, but the vast majority of the Gulf’s biggest equity deals last year were in the UAE.
The two biggest Middle East equity deals of the year were both IPOs, one from Abu Dhabi, for Adnoc, and the other from Dubai, Emaar Development. The UAE’s best investment bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), was global coordinator on both of these and was instrumental in the bonds and loans that accompanied the deals.
Under corporate and investment banking head André Sayegh and corporate finance head Andy Cairns, FAB was joint bookrunner on the Abu Dhabi sovereign’s $10 billion triple tranche issuance in October, which included a 30-year portion. It was also bookrunner and mandated lead arranger on a $3 billion term-loan facility for Dubai Airports in May.
FAB’s work on smaller and complex deals included acting as joint bookrunner on $400 million in senior secured notes due in 2035 for Emirates Sembcorp, in the UAE water and power sector. It was joint structuring adviser on the bank’s own $587 million green bond and joint bookrunner on a $500 million perpetual deal for Dubai retailer Majid Al Futtaim.
Finally, FAB advised on the merger between Reem Investments and Eshraq Properties, and on the $775 million sale of state fund Mubadala’s 40% stake in district cooling company Tabreed to French electricity firm Engie.
