Middle East & North Africa

It has been a week of new records, according to Todd Schubert, Head of Fixed Income Research at Bank of Singapore. The Arab Republic of Egypt’s USD 750m 5.25% 2025 green bond was both the first green sovereign issuance in the region as well as the world’s first high-yield green bond, Schubert explained.

Political uncertainty continues to grip Lebanon after the country missed a deadline set by French president Emmanuel Macron to form a government and unlock critical financing this week. As efforts to fill a cabinet led by premier Mustafa Adib continue in earnest, we outline the main issues facing the crisis-stricken country and how they impact its USD 90bn sovereign debt restructuring.

Still reeling from the aftermath of the currency crisis in Summer 2018, Turkish corporates are poorly positioned to weather a fresh storm caused by the coronavirus pandemic, according to market participants polled by Debtwire.

The Kingdom  of Bahrain enacted a new bankruptcy law in December 2018, sweeping away its previous legislation and replacing it with a thoroughly modern toolkit. The law is a revolutionary improvement compared to what existed before, said lawyers polled by Debtwire.

The Emirate of Dubai’s squeezed real estate market is dragging on the wider economy and has prompted fears there may be spill-over effects felt in related industries such as contracting and hospitality. But market participants polled by Debtwire voiced mixed views about the sector’s prospects in the coming years.

Debtwire Par, the provider of high value news, data and analysis on global debt markets, has today released research showing that the Saudi Arabian bond market saw 1H19 end with bond volumes reaching USD 25.6bn from eight deals, representing an increase of 29% in volume year-over-year.

The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) enacted its new Insolvency Law on 30 May, introducing internationally utilised insolvency and restructuring tools to offshore DIFC jurisdiction.

With few signs that a financial fix for Turkey’s debt-laden energy sector – proposed by the government earlier this year – is any closer to materialising, concern is mounting that not enough is being done to achieve an urgently needed operational turnaround in the industry, several market participants told Debtwire.

The 2009 financial crisis may have been global, but its effects in each country had a distinctly local flavour. None more so, perhaps, than the United Arab  Emirates, where a highly mobile population of expats faced potential jail time over bounced cheques or defaults on loans.

Turkey’s currency crisis – spurred by burgeoning hard currency corporate debt and a large trade deficit – caused a debt restructuring boom in 2H18. President Erdogan’s unorthodox monetary policy and a fragile relationship with the US - peaking with the pastor Brunson spat – poured further fuel on the flames of economic turbulence.

08:00 | Thursday 31 January 2019 | 10 Queen Street Place, London EC4R 1BE

This week’s collapse in oil prices has sent shockwaves across the GCC credit space, said two UAE-based asset managers and a London-based banker. Both WTI and Brent crude hit a three-year low on Tuesday (13 November), and although prices had stabilised by Thursday, a negative mood has set in, they said.