Qatar National Bank Mandates Banks For US$1.5 Bln Loan

Qatar National Bank SAQ (QNBK) hired five banks to help raise a $1.5 billion term-loan as Qatar’s largest lender faces debt maturing next month.

HSBC Bank Middle East Ltd., Deutsche Bank AG (DBK), Standard Chartered Plc (STAN), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), and Bank of Tokyo- Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. were mandated to arrange a three-year senior unsecured facility, the Doha-based bank said in a statement to the Qatari stock market today. “The loan facility will be used for general corporate purposes,” it said without giving further details.

Companies in the Middle East and North Africa raised $14.56 billion from syndicated loans so far this year compared with $17.19 billion in the year-earlier period. Qatar National Bank, which lost out to OAO Sberbank (SBER) in its bid to buy Dexia SA’s Turkish unit Denizbank AS, has a five-year $1.85 billion loan maturing in July. “It makes sense for banks to seek longer-term loans to reduce their dependence on shorter-term interbank funding,” Nick Stadtmiller, head of fixed income research at Dubai-based Emirates NBD PJSC, said today. “A large loan with three years to maturity would help extend the maturity of Qatar National Bank’s liabilities and reduce their refinancing risk in the near term.”

The bank, rated Aa3 by Moody’s Investors Service, the fourth-highest investment grade, raised $1 billion from the sale of five-year bonds in February. The yield on the 3.375 percent bonds due February 2017 has fallen 60 basis points since they started trading in February to 2.801 percent on June 22.

The bank plans to announce its second-quarter results on July 4. The shares rose 0.5 percent to 131.7 riyals at 10:38 a.m. in Doha, Bloomberg reported.