QNB raises US$2.75bn in ME’s biggest Tier 1 notes

BLOOMBERG

Qatar National Bank SAQ, the country’s biggest bank, raised 10 billion riyals (US$2.75 billion) from capital-boosting perpetual notes in the single largest such issue in the Middle East and North Africa.
The privately placed Tier I notes will help strengthen the group’s capital adequacy ratios and support growth across the group, the Doha-based lender said in an e-mailed statement on Sunday. The securities were the first issue of perpetual notes by the bank, according to the statement. QNB agreed to buy National Bank of Greece SA’s Turkish unit for 2.75 billion euros (US$3 billion) in December as part of its expansion plans across the Middle East and Africa. The perpetual notes add to several rounds of fundraising the bank has carried out this year, including a 2.25 billion-euro three-year syndicated loan last month and the US$1.1 billion raised in April from a private placement of two-year floating rate notes listed in Taipei and London. Excluding today’s issue, the bank has already raised US$3.14 billion from privately placed bond issues this year, according to data compiled.
Bank liquidity has tightened in Qatar after oil prices halved over the past two years and lending increased, worsening banks’ loan-to-deposits ratio to 130 percent in April from 125.7 percent in March, according to central bank data. The country, the world’s biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas, raised US$9 billion from the region’s biggest bond sale last month to help bridge this year’s budget deficit.
QNB had a Tier I, risk-based capital ratio of 15.8 percent at the end of March.