The National Bank of Ras Al Khaimah, or Rakbank, is starting an investor roadshow this week to potentially launch a bond sale, which will be about $500 million, to help repay debt maturing in June this year.
Rakbank hired Bank ABC, Citi, Emirates NBD Capital, First Abu Dhabi Bank, ICBC and Standard Chartered Bank as joint lead managers and bookrunners to arrange a series of fixed income investor meetings in Hong Kong, Singapore and London starting March 28, it said on Monday.
“A five-year benchmark Regulation S senior unsecured USD bond offering, under Rakbank’s $2 billion EMTN [Euro Medium Term Note] programme, will follow subject to market conditions,” said the lender.
“The funds will be used as part of the bank’s liquidity management pool in advance of the repayment of the existing bond maturing in June 2019.”
Rakbank aims to issue a bond of about $500m, its chief executive Peter England told The National last month.
The bank, which has issued an $800m bond under its $2bn EMTN programme, plans to tap the bond markets to repay the bond maturing in June, he said at the time. Rakbank has already paid about $100m of the bond and the remainder will be paid from its own sources, he added.
The lender expects to post higher earnings rather than just lower provisions in 2019 compared with last year after it reported a 13.2 per cent net profit increase for 2018 thanks to an 8.5 per cent drop in provisions, Mr England said last month.
It expects to boost its income as it continues to diversify its loan book composition.
