Investment Corporation of Dubai to syndicate $6bn loan

11 August 2008
Syndication of a $6bn multi-currency loan split between three- and five-year tranches by Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD), the investment arm of the government of Dubai, is expected to begin by late August.

Nine bookrunners have been appointed to lead the syndication, including Royal Bank of Scotland, Standard Bank, Barclays Capital, Citigroup, and HSBC, which will all run the conventional debt portion. Dubai Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, Noor Islamic Bank and Standard Chartered will act as bookrunners on the Islamic tranche.

Bankers close to the deal say the bookrunners are hoping to price the debt at about 125 basis points over the London interbank offered rate (Libor) for the three-year tranche, and 150 basis points over Libor for the five-year debt. However, because this is ICD’s debut issue, it could be difficult to keep to such tight pricing.

“Given the way Dubai debt has priced recently, keeping to such low margins could be tricky,” says the banker.

The $1.6bn, two-year tranche of the $5.5bn Dubai World syndicated loan launched in June was priced at 135 basis points.

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