CEEMEA region sees new deals; Grupo Bimbo joins calendar, Minerva, Gilex still sidelined

By Rebecca Melvin

New York, April 2 – The Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa region saw a flurry of deal announcements on Tuesday including three from the Middle East and one from Kazakhstan’s state-owned oil and gas company as the European financial markets reopened following the Easter holiday.

Asia remained fairly active and Mexico’s Grupo Bimbo SAB de CV announced a hybrid security is starting a roadshow with a potential deal to price next week. Other deals on the Latin America calendar remained sidelined however as volatility, including a roller coaster ride in U.S. equity markets, continued.

Minerva SA, which announced a planned deal two weeks ago, is continuing to roadshow its dollar-denominated perpetual note and is monitoring the market, a syndicate source said. The Barretos, Brazil-based food processor is marketing its deal via bookrunners BofA Merrill Lynch, Bradesco, BTG Pactual, HSBC and Itau.

Back in the CEEMEA region, Qatar’s Mannai Corp. QPSC stepped out ahead of the Qatar sovereign with plans for a new dollar-denominated perpetual note that was going to roadshow starting on Wednesday. The IT services, retail and the automotive company’s planned deal represents debt capital market debut and it is the first from a Qatari company other than a bank to wade into the market since last June when Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates initiated a blockade against its neighbor amid accusations that Qatar is a sponsor of terrorism.

The Associated Press reported that President Donald Trump had separate phone calls on Monday with the leaders of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, encouraging them to resolve the ongoing dispute.

Also from the Middle East, Dubai’s Damac Real Estate Development Ltd. has selected banks and scheduled fixed-income investor meetings for a new U.S. dollar-denominated sukuk with a five- or seven-year maturity. Meetings will be held beginning Thursday in Asia, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom for the Regulation S offering.

In addition, the Arab Republic of Egypt has scheduled a series of fixed-income investor meetings regarding a benchmark offering of euro-denominated notes of eight- and/or 12-year notes.

And in Kazakhstan, KazMunayGas has selected banks and scheduled fixed-income investor meetings for a possible U.S. dollar-denominated benchmark of seven-, 12- and/or 30-year notes, subject to market conditions. A roadshow for the Rule 144A and Regulation S notes is scheduled to begin on Friday.

Market tone improved on Tuesday as U.S. stocks bounced back from a rout on Monday led by the shares of technology companies. The Latin America region remained mostly mute, but market sources said they expect the cross-border debt capital market to pick up again soon.

In Asia, Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. said it plans to issue up to RMB 40 billion of tier 2 capital bonds and Beijing-based airline carrier Air China Ltd. announced it plans to issue debt financing instruments with maturities of no more than 15 years. Proceeds will be used for the company’s operations, to adjust its debt structure, to replenish working capital and for funding capital investments.

Meanwhile, pan-Asian insurance group AIA Group Ltd. priced $500 million of 3.9% notes due 2028 under its recently launched $6 billion global medium-term note program. In local currencies, the Philippines Bureau of the Treasury sold in an auction PHP 10 billion of its 4¼% bonds due Jan. 25, 2021 for an average yield of 4.632% and Bangladesh auctioned TK 9 billion of its two-year government treasury bonds with a coupon rate of 5.44%.

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