Doha Bank seeks approval for $549m Tier 1 notes sale

Qatar’s Doha Bank said on Monday it would seek shareholder approval to issue a debt instrument worth 2 billion riyals ($549.3 million) to boost its Tier 1 capital, which would be sold by March 30 next year.

No date for the shareholder meeting was given in the statement to the Qatar bourse. Tier 1 capital is considered the core indicator of a bank’s financial health.

The notes would have a perpetual tenor but would have a clause allowing the bank to redeem them after six years. They would be issued either by Doha Bank itself or a special purpose vehicle 100 percent-owned by the bank – a necessary step if the notes were going to be Islamic bonds.

Doha Bank’s CEO, R. Seetharaman, told reporters in May that the bank could issue a capital-boosting bond as part of a plan to hike its paid-up capital by 50 percent. ($1 = 3.6412 Qatar riyals).-Reuters