Bahrain's SWF bond sale fetches $3bn

Bahrain sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat Holding's bond offering attracted an order book of about $3 billion, a source at an arranging bank said yesterday.

Books were open on the conventional offering and were due to close later yesterday. Two market sources said the order book was between $2.5 billion (Dh9.18bn) and $3bn.

Earlier, Mumtalakat launched a $750 million five-year bond, reopening Gulf Arab fixed-income markets that were hit by the market turmoil due to the European debt crisis in May.

Lead managers for the offering are Deutsche Bank, HSBC, JPMorgan and Standard Chartered. The issue is the first dollar issue from the region since a Dubai Electricity and Water Authority issue in April and was priced at 300 basis points over midswaps, a source at one of the arranging banks said yesterday.

The pricing will be closely watched by markets, as Mumtalakat has the same rating as the Bahrain government. Mumtalakat concluded bond roadshow on Tuesday in Europe.