REUTERS - National Bank of Egypt picks banks for potential benchmark bond

Tuesday 23-06-2015 07:57 PM
REUTERS - National Bank of Egypt picks banks for potential benchmark bond

An employee counts money at a bank in Cairo February 20, 2011. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem

By

DUBAI, June 23 (Reuters) - National Bank of Egypt (NBE), the oldest commercial lender in the country, has picked five banks to arrange fixed income meetings starting on 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.

(Reporting by Archana Narayanan; Editing by Andrew Torchia)

facebook comments