The Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (APICORP), the multilateral development bank focused on the energy sector, announced the pricing of a $750 million 5-year bond, which was rated Aa3 by Moody’s, issued on September 11, 2018. The transaction was issued under APICORP’s newly established $3bn Global Medium Term Note programme to provide the company with maximum flexibility in accessing capital markets.
“Being able to complete transactions of such profile and with such a wide and international investor base is not only an endorsement of our strong balance sheet, but is also in line with our strategy of diversification,” said Dr. Ahmed Ali Attiga, APICORP’s CEO. “We issued a very successful sukuk in October 2017, which was placed primarily in Asia and Europe. Now, with this latest transaction, we have successfully reinforced our strong relationship with the global investor base, and in particular the important and deep US investment community.”
The deal is the third benchmark issue for APICORP following a sukuk in October 2017, which was issued off another $3bn RegS sukuk programme.
Given APICORP has previously only accessed the public Sukuk, regional local currency and Asian private placement markets (with the Formosa and Dim Sum bonds), the company aimed to access western portfolios, with a focus on US accounts. Over 80% of the deal placed with international accounts, outside of the Middle East, and 36% of the bonds allocated to first-time US investors.
The Joint Lead Managers and Bookrunners included Credit Agricole CIB, HSBC, JP Morgan and Standard Chartered. The co-managers included Bank ABC, First Abu Dhabi Bank and Union National Bank.
