National Bank of Egypt selects banks for Potential Benchmark Bond

National Bank of Egypt (NBE), the oldest commercial lender in the country, has picked five banks to arrange fixed income meetings starting Wednesday for a potential benchmark U.S. dollar-denominated bond issue, a document from lead arrangers showed.

The lender, which expects to be rated B-/B by Standard & Poor’s and Fitch, chose Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, National Bank of Abu Dhabi and Standard Chartered Bank as joint lead arrangers for the meetings.

The meetings will be held in the Middle East and Europe, the document showed, adding that the bond might be issued in 2015 depending on market conditions. Benchmark size is usually taken to mean at least $500 million.

The Egyptian government returned to the international debt market this month after a five-year hiatus due to political and economic instability.

Source: Reuters