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Societe Generale raises $750 million bond for NBAD

Societe Generale is pursuing an ambitious growth strategy for the Middle East, in line with a five-year development plan launched in 2014.

Abu Dhabi: Societe Generale has been awarded its first Tier 1 bond mandate in the Middle East in which it acted as Bookrunner, as the bank continues to grow its footprint in the region.

Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Bank was mandated as a Bookrunner and Joint Lead Manager for National Bank of Abu Dhabi’s inaugural USD-denominated Tier 1 offering, which priced on Thursday. The $750 million, perpetual bond issue was Societe Generale’s first bond mandate from National Bank of Abu Dhabi.

Societe Generale is pursuing an ambitious growth strategy for the Middle East, in line with a five-year development plan launched in 2014. This is translating into allocation of capital and the development of dedicated teams in the region, whose areas of speciality include Islamic Finance, Custody, Asset Management, and Brokerage services.

The group last month completed the establishment of a structured finance platform to serve the region, adding locally-based specialists in project finance, export finance, asset finance and debt capital markets in line with the bank’s ambition to become a partner of choice for regional corporates, financial institutions, and sovereigns in its areas of global expertise.

The NBAD mandate is the latest in a number of recent bond issuances that Societe Generale has executed, this year including a $500 million 5-year bond for DP World which was oversubscribed six times, an €2 billion exchangeable bond for Aabar, which was the largest in the EMEA from a non-rated issuer. The bond was issued in two tranches of €1 billion each, which will mature in 2020 and 2022 respectively, and can be exchanged for Aabar-owned shares in Unicredit.

The French bank acted as joint bookrunner for Taqa’s $750 million 10-year senior unsecured bond offering. Ahead of the public USD benchmark offering, Taqa also secured a €180 million private placement, with SG CIB acting as sole dealer.

“We are extremely pleased to have been awarded such a high-profile mandate,” said Richad Soundardjee, Societe Generale chief executive officer, Middle East.

“It is a further testimony of the level of credibility our investment banking platform has reached in the region. It is also another win for our newly formed Structured Finance team, which includes debt capital markets, based on the ground in Dubai.”

haseeb@khaleejtimes.com