Emirates Bank launches its inaugural EUR 500 million 5-year Floating Rate Notes Issue

Since 1999, Emirates Bank has been actively and successfully accessing the loan and international capital markets, each time achieving either tighter pricing, a larger order book and more diversified investor base, or a combination of the three.

Emirates Bank was the first GCC financial institution to establish an EMTN programme in June 2002.

Building on Emirates Bank's continuously improving credit story, its lead managers Barclays Capital and UBS Investment Bank launched on Tuesday the Floating Rate Notes ('FRN') with a coupon of 3-month €uribor +30bps and an issue price of 99.814, resulting in a yield to investors of 3-month €uribor +34bps. This transaction settles on 15th June 2006 with the final maturity on 15th June 2011.

The absence of any new issue premium illustrates investor confidence in Emirates Bank, its credit quality and funding strategy.

The marketing strategy included investor meetings across Europe - and resulted in a very strong order book and a well diversified placement of 76% in Europe, 16% in the Middle East and 8% in Asia. This transaction received the most widespread demand outside of the Middle East to be achieved by any financial institution in the Middle East and North Africa region.

The order book included many new investors that did not participate in Emirates Bank's previous transactions, thus providing very strong diversification into the key Euro investor base. Many high quality European asset managers participated in the transaction.

Mr John Eldredge, General Manager, Group Treasury of Emirates Bank said that this transaction marks a further phase in the Bank's strategy to diversify its funding base, which has been reflected in the strong support from new investors.

Mr Tony Bush, Head of International Banking and Syndications, said that the Bank's strong credit rating enabled the Bank to continue to achieve attractive funding levels from the international markets.

Emirates Bank's choice of a 5-year maturity was in response to general investor preferences and provides the market with a new liquid benchmark.

This issue is Emirates Bank's fourth public issue under the EMTN programme and represents the largest ever Euro denominated bond transaction by a financial institution in the Middle East and North Africa region; as well as the first ever Euro denominated bond transaction issued by an institution in the United Arab Emirates.

Total amount raised under the EMTN programme will now be in excess of US$ 2.4 billion.