First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) is yet again the deserved winner of the award for the Middle East’s best bank for financing.
During the awards period FAB was a bookrunner on 24 corporate loans worth a total of $8.74 billion, for a 10.43% share of the market. It also completed 33 loans as mandated lead arranger worth a combined $6.6 billion, according to data from Dealogic. No domestic, regional or international bank came close to competing with its numbers. In total, FAB closed 160 bilateral, syndicated and club deals during the awards period.
The bank flexed its muscles in the equity and debt capital markets. FAB advised on every UAE equity deal in the 12-month period and was the only regional lender to break into the top-five list of bookrunners in Middle East bonds and sukuk.
“We have continued to top the regional league tables, being the number one underwriter, arranger and facility agent for syndicated loans in the MENA [Middle East and north Africa] region,” says the group head of investment banking at FAB, Martin Tricaud. “This is in line with our strategy to be the best bank in MENA, with strong commitment to the region, especially in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Egypt.”
So many deals vie for attention, but a good place to start is Etihad Airways’ $1.2 billion sustainability-linked loan facility, priced and completed in October 2021. FAB was joint environmental, social and governance (ESG) structuring agent and joint ESG coordinating bank on a deal marking the first sustainability-linked loan tied to ESG targets in global aviation and to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
In May 2021, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) printed $1.195 billion worth of bonds exchangeable into a 6.99% stake in Adnoc Distribution. FAB was co-bookrunner on the first combined equity and exchangeable bond offering in the Gulf – another sign of the region’s increasingly sophisticated local capital markets. It was also on hand to help Adnoc raise $445 million via an accelerated book-build, acting as joint global coordinator, joint bookrunner and lead execution broker.
Over the past year it has cemented its position as the region’s undisputed number-one loan house, with 19 full-time experts based in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, as well as US and Asia, across syndicated finance, leveraged and structured finance, and asset and project finance.
FAB was joint global coordinator on Abu Dhabi Development Holding’s $4.5 billion revolver, completed in December 2021, and global and green loan coordinator on a $3 billion green loan and murabaha facility for Egypt’s finance ministry, priced in November.
It was the leading provider of financing to large public and private-sector corporates. FAB completed a sustainability-linked loan facility for Gulf International Bank (raising $625 million) and for Dubai mall operator Majid Al Futtaim (raising $1.5 billion). And it was joint coordinator, bookrunner, mandated lead arranger and global facility agent on a $5.5 billion term loan and murabaha facility for Emirates Global Aluminium.
Another key deal was a $750 million senior unsecured sukuk printed by the Emirate of Sharjah in March 2022. FAB also helped the Arab Republic of Egypt raise $3 billion via a triple-tranche sale of senior unsecured notes in September 2021.
FAB has been at the forefront of innovation and idea-generation in the investment banking space, with client-centricity at the heart of everything that we do
Martin Tricaud
Its ECM team was busy too. FAB was joint global coordinator, joint bookrunner and lead receiving bank on UAE-based fertilizer giant Fertiglobe’s initial public offering. It marked the first free-zone firm to list onshore on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange. The bank was also joint global coordinator and joint bookrunner on Adnoc Drilling’s $1.1 billion IPO, completed in October 2021.
In July 2021, the bank signed a new strategic alliance with State Street. The tie-up combines FAB’s regional securities services expertise with State Street’s global strength and capabilities across data management and analytics.
“FAB has been at the forefront of innovation and idea-generation in the investment banking space, with client-centricity at the heart of everything that we do – and these acknowledgements reflect the success of this strategy,” says Tricaud. “FAB continues to focus on ESG, leading the advisory, structuring and arranging of sustainability-linked transactions from the region.”
