The National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) has won a second "Deal of the Year" award from a prestigious publication for the US$850 million (AED 3.12 billion) fixed-rate notes, which was launched in September 2009.

The Banker magazine, published by the Financial Times Group, selected the deal as the winner of the FIG - Deal of the Year 2010 for the Middle East Region. The transaction was completed by NBAD’s Financial Market Division. Recently, Euroweek, a London-based weekly newspaper covering the global capital markets, voted the same transaction as Deal of Year in its Emerging Market Award Poll 2009.

Building on last year’s success, NBAD successfully launched a US dollar five-year transaction in mid March 2010 under its US$5 billion EMTN Programme. Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, HSBC and NBAD acted as joint-bookrunners in the notes, which represents the first international public benchmark transaction by a GCC Financial Institution in 2010.? "This reward, which followed recognition by another prestigious publication, is a testament to the strength of this transaction and also to the vitality and relevance of NBAD in global markets. NBAD, which has weathered the storms of the financial global crisis remarkably well due to its prudent management, has become recognised in the global arena as reflected in international awards it continues to win," said Michael Tomalin, NBAD’s Group Chief Executive.

"Despite a difficult past year for many, The Banker still received a significant number of entries for our Deals of the Year. This year judges used a wide range of criteria in selecting the winning deals with a strong emphasis on the degree to which client objectives were met as well as the deal complexity, innovation, speed of execution and pricing performance," said Stephen Timewell, editor emeritus of the Banker magazine.

The success of the deal was a result of the effective strategy put in place by NBAD. It also reflects international investors’ interest in the Abu Dhabi vision 2030 and in NBAD.

The five-year note was priced at 99.717 with a 4.5% semi annual fixed coupon to yield 190bps over mid swaps and 228bps over US Treasury respectively.

"When we were on the road, we were selling the Abu Dhabi story" said Mahmood Al Aradi, the Senior General Manager of NBAD’s Financial Market Division. "I believe we managed to time the market well and executed our strategy of a global road-show in a seamless manner by capitalizing on the strength of our internal team and the great support we received from our mandated JLMs.
 

We accept Guest Posts