First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) has achieved the lowest-ever yield and coupon on any public GBP-denominated bond issued in CEEMEA, having priced a GBP 400 million short five-year bond priced at G+98bps.
The transaction marks FAB’s return to the GBP market following its debut GBP bond issuance in 2020 and represents the first GBP-denominated bond issuance out of CEEMEA in 2021. The offering was welcomed by investors – the orderbook peaked at circa 2.125x oversubscription rate. The transaction attracted strong demand especially from high-quality real money accounts based in the United Kingdom, enabling FAB to further diversify its existing investor base. This was attested to by the robust diversification with 93% of the transaction allocated internationally.
The offering priced at G+98bps, inside FAB’s secondary GBP curve, thereby allowing the bank to effectively re-price its curve. In addition, on a swapped basis, this transaction allowed FAB to raise funding inside its USD curve. More specifically, the transaction priced at an all-in yield of 0.969% and a coupon of 0.875% which marks the lowest-ever yield and coupon on any public GBP-denominated bond issued in CEEMEA.
Rula AlQadi, Managing Director & Head of Group Funding at FAB commented on the success of the transaction: “FAB’s issuance in the GBP market highlights our strong and unique credit story which has enabled us to successfully tap different debt markets over the last few weeks. We are pleased to achieve a strong reception from investors, allowing us to achieve the lowest-ever yield and coupon for a public GBP transaction in CEEMEA, while also further diversifying our investor base. GBP-denominated bond issuances out of CEEMEA have remained scarce, and as such FAB’s recent issuance represents another milestone in developing this market for regional issuers being the only CEEMEA bank issuer to tap this pool of liquidity.”
