NBAD plans to raise $750m from sale of dollar bonds

National Bank of Abu Dhabi may raise $750 million (Dh2.76 billion) from a dollar bond sale, according to three people familiar with the plan. The five-year securities may be priced to yield between 190 basis points to 200 basis points over the midswap rate, said the people, declining to be identified because the information is private. Barclays Plc, HSBC Holdings Plc, UBS AG and National Bank of Abu Dhabi are managing the offering, they said. National Bank of Abu Dhabi has $308 million of bonds and interest payments due this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The bank continues to monitor opportunities in global markets as part of its strategy to diversify the funding base and extend maturities of its liabilities, Stephen Jordan, the state-controlled lender's general manager of the liquidity management and interest rates product group, said on February 15. UAE banks are recovering from the credit crisis, which slowed lending, hurt investment banking and increased loan defaults. National Bank of Abu Dhabi said in January that profit rose about 1 per cent to Dh3.71 billion in 2011.Several Abu Dhabi-based banks have sold bonds over the past few months. First Gulf Bank raised $500 million from the sale of five-year Islamic bonds in January. Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, the emirate's biggest Sharia-compliant lender, also sold $500 million of five-year sukuk in November, while Union National Bank raised $400 million from five-year bonds that month. NBAD's shares closed 0.8 per cent higher to Dh12.1 in Abu Dhabi. They have risen 11 per cent this year, compared with an 8.4 per cent increase in the benchmark index. From gulfnews