Investors from the Middle East and North Africa comprised 49 per cent of some 205 buyers in the five-year note, which was priced to yield 337.5 basis points above the mid-swap rate, a banking source was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.

Some 19 per cent of investors were from Asia, 15 per cent from Europe, 14 per cent from the U.K. and three percent from offshore US, the banker said.

Banks and retail investors bought 54 per cent of the bonds, while funds purchased 33 per cent, insurance companies and central banks six percent, hedge funds four per cent and others three per cent.

The bank had mandated Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, Emirates NBD Capital, HSBC and NBAD, as joint lead managers and joint book runners for the US dollar Regulation S transaction. The bond was issued under Emirates NBD’s $7.5 billion programme.

Emirates NBD is expected to sell bonds worth $1.8 billion this year, in a bid to capitalise on the drop of interest rates to their lowest levels. The move would enable the lender to raise funds at low costs to repay debts.

Two weeks ago, the bank, the UAE biggest by assets, received overwhelming response to its  yuan bond sale, the first by a Middle East bank. In January this year, Emirates NBD’s Islamic subsidiary EIB sold a $500 million sukuk. The sukuks were priced to yield 350 basis points over the mid-swap rate.

Emirates NBD has Dh8.47 billion of debt due in 2012 and will “target raising medium- to long-term funding at acceptable pricing,” Chief Executive Officer Rick Pudner said last month.

Its full-year profit rose six percent to $675 million  from $637 million in the previous year. 

   issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com