The Saudi British Bank issues first ever international bond by a Saudi Arabian issuer

The bond is the inaugural issue under the bank's new Euro Medium Term Note (EMTN) Programme.

Ahead of issuance, a senior level SABB delegation undertook an international roadshow to major financial centres in Asia, Europe and the Middle East to address the growing interest in Saudi Arabia among foreign investors. The response was very positive, with investors attracted to the first issue from Saudi Arabia as well as the credit quality of SABB itself. The key messages that were presented to investors were SABB's strong creditworthiness, excellent credit ratings (including the recently awarded A- from Standard & Poor's), 40 per cent ownership by the HSBC Group, and the 20 per cent risk weighting that SABB as a Saudi entity carries. The combination of these factors enabled the bond to be priced at a very competitive level, US$ LIBOR +41 bps.

When the order book was closed prior to pricing and launch of the bond, its total size was over US$1 billion. Out of the final distribution of bonds, 53 per cent was placed in Europe, 25 per cent in the Middle East and 22 per cent in Asia. Investors include banks, insurance companies, fund managers, private banks and corporates.

Geoff Calvert, Managing Director of SABB, said: "We are delighted to have set the benchmark for the Saudi Arabian banking sector and are gratified that the story that we have been presenting has been so well received by investors who are new to the bank and to Saudi Arabia.

"SABB intends to be a proactive player in the debt capital markets and we look forward to maintaining our new investor relationships and to fostering new relationships on our future issuance."

The arranger of the programme and sole lead manager of the bond issue is the HSBC Group. The Group is the first bank to have lead managed eurobonds out of each of the GCC countries.