Saudi Arabia’s top bank follows UAE lenders to dollar bond market

Dubai: Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank hired advisers to tap the dollar bond market, joining UAE banks to take advantage of investors’ appetite for yield.

The bank mandated Citigroup Inc., Emirates NBD PJSC, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, NCB Capital and Standard Chartered Plc as lead managers and bookrunners for the potential Islamic bond offering, according to a statement.

The unprecedented monetary stimulus to help economies stung by the coronavirus crisis has brought yields near or below zero in developed markets and has encouraged issuers to offer debt while it remains cheap to do so.

UAE’s Emirates NBD and First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC tapped the bond market earlier this month.

National Commercial Bank, the largest bank in Saudi Arabia by assets, is in the process of taking over Samba Financial Group.