The UAE’s Ministry of Finance has closed a US dollar-denominated bond issuance.

The dual-tranche sovereign bond package comprises medium and long-term tranches: a 10-year tranche and a 30-year Formosa tranche – with a total value of $3bn.

It received orders of more than $15bn and the size doubled from its initial target of $1.5bn.

These bonds were priced on 23 June 2022 and will be settled on 7 July 2022, with their tranches distributed as follows:

• The 10-year tranche bonds size was $1.75bn, priced at a spread of 100 basis points over US Treasuries, with final coupon at 4.050 per cent. The 10-year tranche will be listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and Nasdaq Dubai.
• The 30-year Formosa tranche size was $1.25bn, priced at a spread of 175 basis points over US Treasuries, with final coupon at 4.951 per cent. The 30-year tranche will be listed on the LSE, Taipei Exchange and Nasdaq Dubai.

The mandated banks are Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Bank of America Securities, Citigroup Global Markets, Emirates NBD Capital, First Abu Dhabi Bank, HSBC Bank, JP Morgan Securities, Mashreqbank, Standard Chartered Bank and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China.

The UAE Federal Government is rated AA- by Fitch, and Aa2 by Moody’s, with a stable outlook.

MEED's May 2022 special report on the UAE includes:

> The UAE’s realpolitik push
> UAE budget heading for bumper surplus
> UAE banking emerges solid and stable
> Adnoc advances key gas megaproject
> UAE strives towards downstream targets
> UAE utilities drive bold net-zero initiatives
> UAE taps reverse osmosis for long-term capacity
> End of an era for UAE construction
> UAE real estate sentiment broadly positive
> Ukraine reshapes UAE aviation landscape