UAE's Majid Al Futtaim Holding,  is keeping a close eye on Europe's debt crisis as it assesses investors' appetite for a five-year benchmark-sized bond. 

The sole franchisee of French hypermarket chain Carrefour  in the Gulf is meeting investors after it set up a $2 billion global bond programme earlier this month.

"Investors prefer a five-year bond and this works for us too," Daniele Vecchi, senior vice president for treasury at MAF Group said on Thursday.     

"It would be a benchmark transaction, but we are not looking at a very big value at all," Vecchi added. He did not specify an amount for the bond sale but benchmark bond issues are typically at least $500 million.

Vecchi said the developer and operator of malls was not under pressure to issue a bond and any sale would depend on market conditions.     

"We are meeting investors now and after that we will see if market conditions are attractive. We may or may not go ahead with it."     

He said the company is watching the situation in Greece, where the debt-laden country is fighting to secure a European Union/International Monetary Fund bailout to avoid default. The debt crisis in Europe's single currency zone has spooked investors, which may make the pricing of any bond MAF issues unattractive.

 MAF's global roadshows, arranged by Barclays , Credit Agricole , HSBC and Standard Chartered, are expected to conclude next week.

The company has more than $900 million of debt due to mature in 2012, according to its bond prospectus. As of April 2011, the group had a cash position of $700 million.

MAF said earlier that it plans to spend $3.5 billion up to 2015 on four new malls. It plans 11 more Carrefour Hypermarkets in 2011, of which one opened in April in Saudi Arabia. Others are will open in UAE, Iran, Oman, Egypt, Iraq and Pakistan later this year, the prospectus said. -Reuters