GIC EMTN subscription breaks records

19 November 2004
Subscription closed in mid-November heavily oversubscribed to the dollar-denominated euro medium-term note (EMTN) issue by Gulf Investment Corporation (GIC), part of a planned $1,000 million EMTN programme. Commitments of some $850 million were received - the largest ever for this type of issue - and the facility has been upsized to $500 million from $300 million. Banc of America Securities- the investment banking division of Bank of America- and HSBC were lead arrangers and bookrunners on the drawdown.

Gulf institutions use the increasingly popular instrument to diversify funding sources and GIC succeeded in its aim, with 76 per cent of the issue placed outside the Gulf. European investors took 47.4 per cent of the paper and Asian investors 28.6 per cent. The five-year floating-rate note is priced at 55 basis points over Libor, and will be listed in Luxembourg.

GIC will use the funds for general corporate purposes and to ease asset/liability mismatches (MEED 29:10:04).

Bank Muscat, Emirates Bankand Mashreqbank have also recently launched drawdowns of EMTN programmes.

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