Middle Eastern Bond Sales Surge as Yields Hit Record Lows

(Bloomberg) -- Middle Eastern and North African borrowers are issuing Eurobonds at a record pace as global monetary easing prompts them to exploit the lowest funding costs they have ever experienced.

This week Abu Dhabi sold $10 billion of bonds in its first international deal in two years, while Bahrain issued $2 billion of conventional and Shariah-compliant debt.

Sovereigns and companies from the region have raised around $85 billion of dollar and euro securities this year. Saudi Aramco and Qatar have been the biggest issuers, while Egypt, Oman and Saudi Arabia have also come to market. The latter could sell more Eurobonds before the end of 2019, according to a research note from Morgan Stanley strategist Jaiparan Khurana. He also said Dubai may consider its first deal since late 2016.

The average yield on Middle Eastern governments’ dollar debt dropped 4.1 percentage points from the end of December to a record low of 4.43% this month, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. indexes. Spreads are 293 basis points over U.S. Treasuries, around the lowest since 2011.

To contact the reporter on this story: Farah Elbahrawy in Dubai at felbahrawy@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Dana El Baltaji at delbaltaji@bloomberg.net, Paul Wallace, Alex Nicholson

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