United Arab Emirates

Etihad Airways and five other airlines in which it owns stakes, printed an innovative $500m structured bond on Wednesday and bumped it up to $700m a day later on the back of a late reverse enquiry.

Etihad Airways has tapped the $500m structured bond it sold on Wednesday for a further $200m. Despite this, the bonds have staying buoyant at around 101.25 bid.

Persian Gulf equity markets have so far failed to win a boost from last year’s inclusion of the United Arab Emirates and Qatar into the world’s main emerging market index, as well as the more recent opening up of the Saudi Exchange to foreign investors, market participants have said.

Etihad Airways printed its innovative $500m structured bond on Wednesday. It pulled in pricing from guidance but opted for the lower end of the $500m-$750m size range the company was targeting.

Etihad Airways, in search of a platform from which to fund itself and its subsidiaries, has turned to the bond market’s financial laboratory and come up with a unique structure that has emerging market investors doing some serious credit work.

A flood of banks in the Middle East are set to follow the two Abu Dhabi names which are making a dash for cash in the loans market to meet new regulations as they grapple with low oil prices, writes Elly Whittaker.

Debt bankers close to Etihad Airways’ structured bond deal are expecting investors to ask for a 50bp premium on top of the fair value yield, while interested fund managers have started price analysis in earnest.

Etihad Airways will meet investors from Thursday to introduce a structured deal that has been alternately described by bankers away from the transaction as “impressive” and “too clever by half.”

Abu Dhabi's First Gulf Bank has agreed a loan at a margin 60bp tighter than its last deal, as it raises $1bn to meet the liquidity requirement of the United Arab Emirates central bank.

OSN, the Dubai-based subscription television company, has signed its second syndicated loan for $400m, which was twice oversubscribed.

Abu Dhabi's Union National Bank has closed books for its three year loan and will increase it from the launch size of $500m, according to a banker on the deal.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Wells Fargo are coordinating First Gulf Bank’s $1bn loan, which has all-in pricing of 85bp over Libor.