Tale of Two Bonds: How Qatar's Sale Compares With Saudi Arabia's
Tale of Two Bonds: How Qatar's Sale Compares With Saudi Arabia's
(Bloomberg) -- The political discord between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which has divided the Arab world since June, spilled into the bond market last week as both chose to sell debt to help fund their budget deficits within 48 hours of each other.
While Qatar held meetings with fixed-income investors between April 9 and 11, Saudi Arabia started and completed a sale on April 10. Both countries had been planning an offering for months.
Read More: Qatar, Saudi Arabia Bond Bonanza Pushes GCC Debt Sales to Record
Below is a comparison of the two offerings and the nations’ finances. Economic data for both countries are from the International Monetary Fund:
| Saudi Arabia | Qatar | |
|---|---|---|
| GDP (nominal, 2017) | $678.5 billion | $166.3 billion |
| GDP per capita (2018) | $21,453 | $65,159 |
| Forecast GDP growth (2018) | 1.1% | 3.1% |
| Description | No. 1 oil exporter | No. 1 LNG exporter |
| Credit ranking (S&P) | A-, seventh highest | AA-, fourth highest |
| Bond size | $11 billion | $12 billion |
| Orderbook | About $52 billion | About $53 billion |
| Tranches | 7y/12y/31y $4.5b/$3b/$3.5b | 5y/10y/30y $3b/$3b/$6b |
| Spread over U.S. Treasuries | 140bp/175bp/210bp | 135bp/170bp/205bp |
| Date priced | April 10 | April 12 |
| CDS (five year) | 89 | 87 |
| Bookrunners | Citi, GIB Capital, GS, HSBC, MS, Bank of China, ICBC, JPM, MUFG | Al Khaliji, Barclays, CA-CIB, CS, DB, QNBCAP, StanChart |
| Fiscal balance in 2018 | -7.2% of GDP | 0.5% of GDP |
To contact the reporter on this story: Arif Sharif in Dubai at asharif2@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Dana El Baltaji at delbaltaji@bloomberg.net, Jana Randow
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