The emirate of Abu Dhabi is in no rush to issue an international bond this year after completing a non-deal roadshow for investors in Asia, and may not issue at all this year, sources close to the matter said on Wednesday.
Government representatives met Asian fixed income investors at the end of January, but “the non-deal roadshow was just that: a non-deal roadshow. They won’t issue this year,” said one of the sources, declining to be named because the matter is not public.
Another source said there was no rush to sell bonds and a decision to issue had not been made, though he stopped short of saying there would definitely be no issue this year.
A spokesman at the department of finance of Abu Dhabi could not immediately be reached for comment.
After an absence of seven years from the international debt markets, Abu Dhabi issued a $5 billion bond in April last year, joining a flurry of Gulf issuers – both sovereign and corporate – raising debt internationally to offset the blow to their incomes of lower oil prices.
However, Abu Dhabi’s state finances are stronger than those of most Gulf states and with the Brent oil price now around $55 a barrel, up from last year’s average of $45, the emirate is believed to be running only a small deficit and to have no urgent need to borrow.
Abu Dhabi’s bond last year was split between five-year and 10-year tranches; the 10-year paper priced at 125 basis points over US Treasuries.
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