Bahrain Mirror: The Central Bank of Bahrain said that Bahraini government successfully priced a Rule 144A/RegS international USD 1 billion 6.875% Oct-2025 sukuk offering. The transaction received strong global investor interest, with the orderbook peaking at around USD 2.1 billion (2.1x of the total amount raised) from more than 100 investors.

The Kingdom embarked on an extensive and well attended global roadshow, meeting more than 70 investors in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States.

Based on investor feedback, the Kingdom elected to pursue the most optimal cost efficient debt capital markets format, issuing a single tranche sukuk offering, taking into account various factors, including the prevalent market backdrop, the performance of recent Emerging Markets debt capital markets issuances as well as investor's feedback to proactively manage the performance of Bahrain's securities in the secondary market.

BNP Paribas, Citi, Gulf International Bank, National Bank of Bahrain and Standard Chartered Bank acted as Joint Lead-Managers and Joint Bookrunners on the transaction.

"Bahrain has fostered a long-term relationship with debt capital markets investors, and we are pleased to see strong appetite to the transaction despite the volatile market conditions", said Salman bin Isa Al Khalifa, Executive Director of Banking Operations at the Central Bank of Bahrain.

The Kingdom is expected to raise financings through other sources of funding, including local debt capital markets and potentially could seek to come back to the international debt capital markets at a later stage in 2018.

Arabic Version