Floating rate note (FRN) issues by Samba Financial Group and Gulf Investment Corporation (GIC) were priced in late May. Both are part of euro medium-term note (EMTN) programmes.

Samba kicked off its planned $1,600 million EMTN programme with a $500 million, five-year issue, which was priced at 35 basis points (bp) over Libor. Citigroup and Deutsche Bank were the lead managers. The paper was assigned A and A/A-1 ratings respectively by Fitch and Standard & Poor's in early May (MEED 12:5:06).

GIC issued a Eur 400 million ($512.9 million), five-year FRN, which was also priced at 35 bp over Libor. ABN Amro and UBS were the arrangers. The paper is GIC's third EMTN issue and its first denominated in euros. Its 2004 dollar issue was priced at 55 bp and its 2005 dollar issue was priced at 50 bp (MEED 10:6:05).

Other banks with EMTNs in the pipeline include Arab National Bank, Ahli United Bank and Commercialbank.