DUBAI: Gulf International Bank, majority owned by the Saudi Arabian government, has mandated banks to arrange a dollar-denominated bond, planned before the end of the month, four sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Bahrain-based GIB picked itself, as well as JP Morgan Chase Inc, National Bank of Abu Dhabi, Barclays Plc, Standard Chartered Plc and Societe Generale to arrange the deal, the sources said.
“GIB’s bond issue is more of a credibility rebuilding exercise. This was one bank which was a blue-chip name once,” said a banking source.
GIB posted combined losses of $1.15bn in 2007 and 2008 in the wake of the global financial crisis and was forced to sell nearly $5bn of toxic assets to its shareholders in a bailout in 2009. The bank, in September of this year, updated a prospectus for its $4bn bond programme in which it said proceeds from any potential debt issue would be used for general corporate purposes. Reuters
