ENBD Plans Renminbi Bond Sale

Emirates NBD, the UAE’s largest bank by assets, has announced that it might be offering a Chinese Renminbi-denominated bond soon.

It has mandated Emirates NBD Capital Limited, HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank to arrange investor meetings in Hong Kong and Singapore from February 22.

“An offering of CNH (Offshore Chinese Renminbi)-denominated Regulation S bond, under ENBD’s $7,500 million EMTN programme may follow, subject to market conditions,” the bank said in a statement.

Meanwhile the bank has chosen to delay a potential Swiss franc-denominated bond sale, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday.

Emirates NBD had reportedly appointed Credit Suisse and BNP Paribas to assess the sale, but decided against it because “the timing is not right,” one source said.

Last week the lender announced that net profits for the fourth quarter of 2011 fell to Dhs152 million from Dhs403 million during the same period a year ago due to excessive provisioning.