Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait (BBK) has announced the closing of a bond issuance of $400 million.

The issuance of an international senior unsecured bond with a five-year maturity date targeted professional investors in the Middle East, Far East and Europe, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

It followed a successful five-day roadshow conducted in Singapore, Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and London.

The investor mix was diversified whereby 70 per cent of them were based in the Middle East, eight per cent based in Asia and 22 per cent in Europe.

Furthermore, 50 per cent of the bonds were bought by banks and the remainder by fund managers, private banking clients and pension/insurance companies.

A delegation led by chief executive Abdulkarim Bucheery and including deputy chief executive Riyadh Sater, general manager of treasury, investment and institutional banking Dr A Rahman Saif, chief financial officer Mohammed Abdulla, head of treasury Neil Sharp and chief risk officer Amit Kumar met around 45 international investors to update them on BBK's strategy and financial performance.

A total of 57 regional and international investors invested in BBK bonds, with a fixed coupon of 3.5 per cent and a re-offer price of 99.09 per cent, and rated BBB by Fitch Ratings and Baa2 by Moody's.

The bond was substantially oversubscribed with the order book reaching around $900 million.

The proceeds will be used to repay BBK's existing $500 million bond which matures in October and further enhance BBK's stable funding base.

“This puts the bank in a very comfortable liquidity position and gives it the ability to tap the markets again when needed,” Bucheery said. - TradeArabia News Service