First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), recently announced the issuance of the largest-ever Chinese Yuan (CNH) denominated dual-listed Formosa bond globally, with a CNH 3.25 billion five-year issuance.

Despite the GCC-wide public holiday, FAB was able to attract a high quality international orderbook of more than CNH 3.6 billion, which enabled it to upsize its target issuance from CNH 1 billion to a record-breaking CNH 3.25 billion.

The dual-listing ensured FAB got maximum demand from onshore Taiwan as well as from the rest of Asia. FAB has been a regular issuer in the Formosa market and is a well-known name in the CNH market, having raised CNH 1.4 billion in June via a similar offering.

The deal was a significant success on multiple fronts, eclipsing the previous largest issuance (CNH 2.675 billion by Credit Agricole in 2016) and also pricing very competitively at 3.4 per cent in CNH, which swapped back to well inside FAB’s USD curve.

Rula Al Qadi, Head of Group Funding at FAB, said, “The deal exceeded our expectations in terms of size and reflects Asian investors’ strong faith in FAB’s credit fundamentals and Abu Dhabi’s economic strength. Our ability to access niche markets at short notice and to take advantage of opportunistic funding levels gives us a major advantage in funding. The CNH deal swaps back well inside our USD curve for a size of almost $464 million equivalent. We are thankful to all the investors who have supported FAB in this deal.”

WAM