Business | Banking
Emirates NBD eyes $600m loan deals
Emirates NBD is set to sign syndicated loan deals worth $600 million with two Turkish and two Ukrainian banks in the coming weeks as the Gulf becomes an attractive place for raising funds amid difficult global credit conditions.
- By Shakir Husain, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:02 July 7, 2008
Dubai: Emirates NBD is set to sign syndicated loan deals worth $600 million with two Turkish and two Ukrainian banks in the coming weeks as the Gulf becomes an attractive place for raising funds amid difficult global credit conditions.
The leading UAE bank has so far been involved in 14 syndicated and club loans this year totalling $17.5 billion, according to Mohammad Kamran Wajid, head of financial institutions at Emirates NBD.
The bank also concluded a $500 million loan deal with a major Russian bank last week with the participation of 30 banks, Wajid said, without naming the bank.
"Borrowers are increasingly looking to tap liquidity in the Middle East. We are talking to six more banks for arranging loans. Agreements with two banks from Turkey and two in Ukraine will be signed and funded within the next 45 days," he said.
Russia's Uralsib Bank yesterday signed a $313 million loan agreement. It was arranged by BayernLB, Credit Suisse, Emirates NBD, ING and National Bank of Oman.
The one-year loan will be used to provide trade finance to the bank's clients, Uralsib's international business division executive director Leonid Vakeyev said.
The amount was increased from $150 million after an oversubscription. It pays a margin of one percentage point over the London interbank offered rate (Libor).
Vakeyev said the ongoing tight credit situation in the global market was not the only reason for turning to Emirates NBD. The UAE bank had also arranged a $290-million loan for Uralsib in March last year.
"One of the reasons for choosing them was because we have ongoing dealings with them," he said, adding that despite difficult market conditions 32 banks from 19 countries participated in the loan.
The cost of borrowing has increased because banks are reluctant to lend to each other following the US subprime crisis.
However, Emirate NBD's wholesale banking general manager Abdul Wahid Al Fahim said there is no shortage of funds for "right borrowers willing to pay the right price."
"It is about the quality of assets, structure and price," he said.
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